


Avatar: The Legend Of The Owl Lady

by G_U



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: AU, Adventure, Angst, Bending, Descriptive Violence, Enemies to Friends, F/F, Found Family, Friendship, Graphic Description of Wounds, Hurt, Lost - Freeform, Multi, Mystery, Nostalgia, Overseas, Quest, Slow Burn Romance, Teen Romance, The four Nations - Freeform, badly hurt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:14:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 49,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26496961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/G_U/pseuds/G_U
Summary: Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony...But Everything changed when the Emperor's nation attacked. Their benders, reckless, and merciless destroyed everything in their path to gain absolute control over the whole world. And the Avatar, the only one with the power to stop them... Banished when needed the most.More than a century has passed, the war is still ongoing. And a single girl, Luz Noceda, is about to meet her destiny, and the path coming ahead is harsh, restless, and dangerous. But she won't have to do it alone.Why?Because the Avatar is about to come back, to bring peace to the world.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & King & Hooty (Family), Eda Clawthorne & Luz Noceda (Mother/Daughter), Luz Noceda & Willow Park & Gus Porter
Comments: 74
Kudos: 215





	1. The Runaway Girl

**Author's Note:**

> First chapter!!!  
> This is going to be long........  
> No joke, but then again, I hope you can stick around for it. Not gonna lie, took a long way to prepare. I'm still correcting a few things.   
> I'll be seeing you guys at the end of this chapter to ask some things, also, waiting for your quesitons.  
> Without further add to it, let's dive into it!

** Chapter 1: The Runaway girl **

“Get back here, you little wench!!”

Luz let out a little scream before dodging the ropes the old man threw at her. Why was she in the port again? Oh, yeah… fish.

“It’s just a tuna!!” she screamed back, sliding under a cart and then jumping on to one moving rope.

She was a meter above the sea level now.

Luz smiled looking down and then to the front, jumping into the water, making a perfect entry in the crystalline surface, and diving as deep as she could. She looked around the area before going to a coral formation, taking in her hands a bag; her bag.

She swam away, reaching a sea cave and entering. Once she was far enough, she went upwards.

Breaking the surface of the pond, she took in all the air her lungs were missing and moved closer to the shore.

“These people sure are mean… It was just a fish!” she said, resting on the rocky ground and closing her eyes.

Her eyes fluttered open, the crystal ceiling over her shining with green and orange lights, captivating her.

But she didn’t have time for that.

Luz stood up, taking the bag and the fish with her, running in the tunnel with all the secretiveness she could muster, reaching her destination soon enough. Light shined bright from an aperture in the wall. Taking a deep breath she got inside said place and moved along a long, small, and asphyxiating passage.

She reached her home.

The refugees’ secret camp. Luz moved by the shadows the lamps cast around her, looking at the kids playing and the other teens cultivating the fields; she also saw the adults working on crystals.

All the same, always.

_Nothing ever changes_ , she thought, grimacing, while getting to her final destination.

Home, her home.

“Mija, where were you?” she heard while getting inside.

“Just out there getting food, mom!” she said in response, letting the fish on the table.

The house was a two-room place. Her mother had built a leather and wood wall from the cave wall as an extension of it. The rest was a single great wooden table in the middle of the room, their kitchen was a stone structure, and her mom’s bed was built with different kinds of leaves and furs.

It was cozy if she said so herself.

She opened the bag, the short sword, the quiver and arrows, and the bow perfectly dry. She left them in their place by the oven. Her mother was cutting from what surely was their part of the harvest of that month.

“Any luck?” her mom asked looking over her shoulder.

“I got a tuna!” she said smiling, before adding, “Also saw a pelican and a strange kind of cluster and a lobster…!!”

Her mom stopped her work, looking at her with a frown. She just screwed up… again.

“Luz Noceda!!” the woman shouted and she flinched, here comes the lecture. “Those kinds of creatures don’t appear in our shore, you were at that isle docks again, weren’t you?!”

“I wasn’t!!” she said, “I was above them!”

Wrong answer, now she was disappointed, that hurt more.

“… Can’t believe this…” the woman said watching her; then she shook her head, “what would your grandmother say…?”

“I don’t know,” she muttered and looked away, “she has been gone forever.”

Her mom sighed and got closer, holding her shoulder and chin, making her look at her eyes.

“You know the outside world is dangerous.” she told Luz, “The emperor’s nation is making war to anybody who doesn’t obey them… I don’t want anything to happen to you, Mija…”

“… I know mom, but it’s just…” she freed herself and turned around, looking at the ground, “I don’t want to live my entire life trapped here.”

“I know, baby, but everything is going to change someday.” With slow motions, Luz found her mother hugging her, “Sooner or later, the Avatar is going to come back to bring balance…”

“To the world.” Luz finished.

“You just need to have faith sweetie.” Her mom then walked to where the fish was and took it, smiling. “At least this will be delicious. Would you help me searching for rock salt to cook this?”

Luz sighed again, smiled at her mom, and nodded. Taking her sword, she ran out, this time taking the central route of the town.

The secret place was a sanctuary for all the people who had managed to escape the Emperor's Nation advance in the world. A single-family who had proclaimed themselves the rulers of the entire world had started a war; their benders were relentless and vicious fighters… common knowledge that seemed so unreal, and yet it was.

Luz still remembered when her mom told her how her grandmother had died defending her family from a fire bender.

She shook her head, concentrating on the task at hand, passing a playground were other teens her age were playing with a ball. The moment they saw her though, they hid the ball and looked away.

And as always, she continued her way.

It was no secret that no one really wanted her there. No one wants her.

They were all so happy with living in the middle of nowhere, under a rock in the sea, like some kind of parasite. But she wasn’t.

Hell no.

She wanted to get out there, see the world she could only imagine from the few books the people there managed to save when they ran away from their homes.

She reached the salt wall, an immense salt rock that kept regenerating thanks to the sea. She used her sword to break a small part and put it in a small bag on her belt.

She needed to go back… but also…

She moved around the wall, reaching the only place where she wasn’t permitted in the entire camp – even if there were people who tried to ban her from other places, this was the only one where she actually shouldn’t be – just like all the other kids.

The bending training fields.

“Just in time…” she whispered with a little shaking, hiding in her favorite spot behind a great rock, her brow shirt and black leather pants helping her mix with the wall.

Down in a little cove, there were them. The only adults who could bend; there were ten of them, she counted them every day, two fire benders, three air benders, two earth benders, and the best of all…

The water bender, Miss Azura!!

She was fighting with her rival, the air bender Hecate, both of them making the usual mock battle for the others. Luz knew that none of them – with the exception of the two women – had fought with their bending before. She was mesmerized with Azura's movements, the way the water obeyed her, how she changed it from water to ice, and vice versa. Hecate was good too, using the air to make illusions of dust that she couldn’t quite make out.

Bending was amazing.

She stayed no longer than a few minutes. Any longer and someone could’ve noticed her.

While coming back, she stopped in a solitary street and looked at the water in a pond. She made sure no one was around before taking a stance.

She imitated Azura's movements, all of them, with all the perfection she could muster, wishing with all her heart that the water might move just a little.

But it doesn’t.

“Like it was possible…” she said sighing, and finally returning to her way back home.

…

After eating, she worked on her sword skills, archery and footwork. The improvised training grounds she made in the deepest part of the cave, where no one wants to go, was her little peaceful space. There she had small contraptions with long sticks and rocks; the closest she is ever going to be of real danger.

Leaving the port aside.

“Just stay here, we are all going to survive if we don’t call any unnecessary attention,” she said, remembering the words of the leader and her mom. “Living in a cave is not _living_ you know!!!” she screamed.

She let herself fall on the ground, looking at the ceiling. This specific part was weird. She was under a rainbow-colored roof. She had tried to count them all once, but her mind always forgot the work and just returned to complaining about her life.

“Staying alive is not life, mom…” she said at nothing, reaching above with her hand, “I don’t want to stay here forever…”

She closes her eyes, remembering her mom’s words.

“Avatar… if you really are out there…” Luz placed both of her hands over her heart, “please… please appear soon.”

Nothing happened, as per usual. She stood up, walking towards the camp.

But before she could take her things, something did happen that made her stop and shiver uncontrollably.

An earthquake.

“No, no, no, no, no…” She panicked, moving to a wall and hiding in the safest spot possible. “I don’t want to die!! I haven’t done anything yet!!”

She looked at the ceiling begging any deity that may listen to her to survive…

Someone may have listened.

The crystals in the ceiling started glowing, like, really glowing. She was almost forced to close her eyes. But she couldn't, because something was happening right there that she had to see.

A light pillar appeared from the crystals and touched the ground, lifting a cloud of dust that that time made her look away. Coughing and trying to avoid getting stones in her skin, she stood up, walking in the direction of the light.

The pillar vibrated, and she could see a shadow inside of it, then two, and then three.

“Hello…?” she said, and the shadows turned—or so she thought—to her.

They ran in her direction and Luz prepared her sword, ready to kill this thing…

But she didn’t expect a wave of air to push her back and then a woman to jump out of the light, followed by a mass of fur and what seemed to be a giant wooden… owl?

“We are out!!!” the woman screamed standing, “Suck that, spirit world!!”

Luz stared and the woman turned to look at her, piercing amber eyes locking on her hazel ones.

And Luz fainted.

.

.

.


	2. The Woman from Beyond The Portal - No More Hiding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz is faced with the coming of a strange woman and is forced to face one of the things she had always been looking out for...  
> Jut, it's not the way she wanted.  
> And dreams, good or bad, always come with a price.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second Chapter!  
> Thanks for reading, getting the Kudos I got and also commenting, it means a lot to me, so thanks!  
> Today we are getting to Know our Avatar for this story, and you are going to see what happened in the world a bit more.  
> No much more to add...  
> Enjoy the ride!
> 
> ...... I hope you will.

#  Chapter 2: The woman from beyond the portal and no more hiding 

She woke up in her training field feeling like she was run over by a wave and hit a coral bank… several times.

Wouldn’t be the first time.

But at that moment she felt something… different, something moving around her with extreme care.

“You think she is dead?” Luz wondered whose voice was that.

“We didn’t kill her,” a second voice said. It was a woman.

“Can I eat her? hoot-hoot,” a third voice said. It sounded like a child, and it wanted to eat her?!

No.

She moved as fast as she could, sprung to her feet, and started to run. Her sword was left behind the same as her other weapons, but she could do without them if that kept her alive.

If she could get to the village, Azura would take care of this stranger, or the hunters…

“Sorry kid, I kind of need your help right now.” She heard the woman's voice in the distance.

And then it felt like the air pushed her back, separating her from the ground and turning her in all directions until she was once again in front of that woman.

“Don’t, you, dare, to, faint,” the woman said, and Luz nodded. “Good, I need some answers.”

“Answers?”

“Great, would you look at it? That was the opposite.” the woman shook her head. “Look, there is something very important that I need to know… “

“Could you make her talk faster? I’m freezing here!”

Luz turned and felt her mind going blank for a second. That thing was weird; little, with fur and a covered with a skull head with two horns, one of which was broken...

“Oh mi Avatar que lindo!!!” Luz screamed, standing and hugging the little thing.

It was so fluffy, and warm, and cute, and… and… she ran out of adjectives but you could get the point.

“You are so cute!” she said to… it? Him? “Who is a wiggle guy? Who is a wiggle guy? Is it you? Is it you?”

“No, I’m not your wiggle guy, Eda, help!!!”

“Ok kiddo, stop!”

Luz was ripped away—more literal than you’d think—from the cutie and held by the woman in the middle of the air, then Eda—or that’s how Luz assumed the woman called herself—set her on the ground again, holding her by the shoulders and making her look directly into her eyes.

“Where are we?” she asked, before adding, “Which year is it?”

Luz stared.

What kind of questions were those? Well, thinking about it, she probably would ask the same if she appeared from a pillar of light in the middle of a non-naturally illuminated cave.

“You are on the east coast of Bonesborough, one of its isles anyway,” she said, freeing herself from her grip, “And it’s year one hundred thirty-two of the Imperial Calendar.”

“What?” Luz felt like asking the same question, “Imperial Calendar? No kid, tell me the real date.”

“That is the real date.”

Eda chuckled shaking her head. “No kiddo, it’s not. Tell me the date in the Awakening Calendar!”

Luz was left without words at the effusiveness of the woman and felt cold sweat running down her spine.

“… The Awakening Calendar hasn’t been used in more than a century… one hundred and thirty years, to be precise.” she finally said moving back.

“What…?”

“The Emperor’s Nation restarted the calendar when they started invading the other countries.” Luz stood up. “The war has been going on all this time.”

“War? No, impossible.” Eda moved back, the red dress moving along with her body, contrasting with her pearl white skin. “The monks would never have let it happen… The fire dorks hate the unnecessary conflict… For the Lion-turtle's sake, the water idiots made everyone sign a truce!!”

Luz didn’t say anything. She moved slowly, reaching out for her sword; or her bow and arrows, anything would be good, she was against a bender, she needed to move carefully.

“She is trying to get that pointy thing.” a new voice—stupid and disembodied new voice!!!—made her freeze.

Eda looked at Luz again, stopping her ranting, advanced, and grabbed her wrist, pulling it over her head.

“What happened to the world?” Eda asked, fire in her eyes, “Tell me who this emperor is, what happened to the air nomads, to the dragon dancers, to the great builders… to the tidal Templars?!! They were supposed to avoid all wars!!”

“I… I don’t know who you are talking about!” she said, feeling her wrist burn… Burn? “Let me go!!! You are hurting me!!”

That seemed to make Eda react. She let go of her wrist and Luz pulled it to her own chest. She looked at it, the skin was redder than before and it stung.

“Sorry…” Eda passed a hand through her platinum hair. “But this is not possible. I’ve been away for just a few months… a year, two at most, but not more than a century…”

“What are you talking about now?” Luz asked, studying her.

“Eda is losing her mind, it’s time for a revolution!!!” said the little cute creature.

“I want to eat her hair, hoot-hoot!!” Luz shook at that voice.

Looking around but without finding the person who spoke, Luz was more than confused… of course, until she looked up.

“What is that?!!!” she screamed throwing herself at the floor.

On the roof, a giant owl-like thing had suspended itself by holding onto the crystals. Its feathers were made of… wood, stone, and actual feathers. The body, in contrast to the round and almost perfectly cylindrical head and neck, had a squared form. Luz also saw a red mounting chair on its back.

“That’s just my owl demon, Hooty,” Eda said sitting on the ground, Luz finally noticing the heels on her feet. How can she go on with those?

Not important right now.

Eda placed her staff next to her and massages her temples. “And that tiny little fur ball of problems is King. He is a guardian spirit,” she said, pointing to the cutey.

“A demon? A guardian spirit?” Luz said.

“Yes…”

“I’m the king of all guardian spirits!!!!” King said, jumping in his place.

“You are the king of adorable little buddies,” Luz responded, before giving herself a mental slap.

She needed to focus.

“Who are you, child?” Eda asked, “And why are you in a solitary cave…? Are you escaping from the law?”

“What? No.” Luz stopped and considered her situation for a moment. “Actually… kinda?”

Eda smirked, moving her eyes along Luz's body. “Heh, seems like the old ways of hiding are still in play.” she said leaning in, “Still waiting for that answer kid.”

“… My name is Luz, Luz Noceda, how about you?”

She already has a supposition, but confirming things is always a good way to go.

The woman smiled and got up, taking her staff from her side and spinning it in her hands creating a soft wind before placing one of its ends on the ground.

“I’m Eda Clawthorne.” she said, “Anyway you said we are near Bonesborough didn’t ya?”

“Well… relatively? I mean, we are a few miles away, but you need to dive to get out of the caves.”

“Dive?” Eda moved to the river, and getting her hand inside, then tasting a bit. “An undersea cave?”

“Yeah, it's the safest you get now,” Luz told her, shaking her head, “The Emperor’s Nation is controlling the sea, the sky, and the earth, only sea caves are out of their reach and it’s because getting to one is kinda hard without water bending…”

“So you are a water bender?”

“Ha, I wish.” Luz turned to the side. “The one who got us here the first time was Azura, she is an impressive water bender… I just practiced and swam until I could hold my breath to get out of here to go fishing.”

“Those are some crazy muscles and lungs indeed.” King said, walking to stand beside Eda, “Her arm hurt me.”

“If you are not a water bender, then what do you do?” that time the creature Hooty came down, moving around her.

Luz bit her lip before looking down. Just the subject she didn’t want to touch.

“I’m no bender,” she said.

The silence was not reassuring.

“Oh, well sorry kid, it’s just from where I come from is rare to see someone who…”

“Can’t bend? Yeah, not so much of a weird thing here.” Luz sighed. “In this village, a lot of people can’t bend… We are runaways. We were lucky that Azura and her group found us before the army. They take care of us.”

“How many benders are here?” Eda asked, walking in her direction.

“Ten, at least one of each element”.

“Well, that’s something. In my time benders didn’t mix up.”

“When there’s a worldwide threat, you don’t get to be close-minded,” Luz stood up and started getting her things.

It didn’t seem to bother the other three this time.

“You sure seemed better equipped than a normal kid.” King said, “Why are you carrying all this?”

Luz looked at her things, shrugging.

“Sometimes we find sea serpents.” she said, “What are you going to do now?”

“What do you mean?” Eda asked.

“Well, I’m guessing you are going to be leaving soon?” Luz moved her hands, “Unless you want to spend more time in a cave.”

“It seems to be like a mess out there, I wouldn’t mind it here,” Hooty said.

“I really need a rest anyway,” said King, moving to a rock.

Luz watched them carefully, now in the new light of things—if she chose to believe Eda, that is—Hooty and King were just people or pets. More like the last.

“How about you, miss Eda?” Luz asked looking at her.

The woman sighed, before looking at Luz.

She stood up and dusted herself off. “I’ll be going with you.” she said, “I need to figure out what’s happening in the world before I go out.”

“Suit yourself.”

…

Moving along Luz relaxed, she could be a little friendlier, but she was tired and feeling like crap after talking about bending.

She moved for the natural paths hearing Eda walk behind her. It was… weird, to have something other than the echo of her own footsteps tailing her.

“Hey, so… why were you in that portal?” Luz turned a corner, “Where does that portal even lead to anyway?”

“The portal was from the spirit world.” Eda said, jumping over Luz's head and landing in front of her, “I was tired of that place, so I came here.”

“How can you get tired of a world of mystic creatures and nearly no rules?”

“It gets boring after the first three months alone with weirdo one and weirdo two.” Eda dipped her head, looking away. “I didn’t expect losing one hundred thirty years though…”

Luz didn’t say anything to that.

They found the camp going nuts. The streets were covered with the little people that actually lived there, and she could see the air benders flying over the houses.

“What’s happening?” Luz heard Eda ask.

Hiding behind a rock and gesturing for Eda to follow her, Luz grimaced. “I don’t have the slightest idea…” she said, closing her fists. “But it doesn’t seem to be a good time to go down there…”

“You don’t have to say it…” Eda moved a little further behind the stone, and pinched her, “How many air benders are there in this village again?”

“Three, why?”

“Then we have a problem.”

Eda held her chin and made Luz look in the same direction as her, and it felt like she had ice in her veins.

Air benders, at least six of them, were flying over the houses. Her eyes darted to the plaza; all the people were there, and she caught sight of fire, a lot of it.

“We were found…” she whispered, shivering.

That quake…

“It was because of them…” she shook her head and moved.

“Hey, hey, hey, were do you think you are going?” Eda stopped Luz, pulling her back in the shadow of the stone.

“I need to find my mom,” Luz said, freeing herself from Eda’s grip.

It was the only thing she could do.

“I need to find Azura, she’ll save us…!”

“Tone it down.” Eda raised a hand and hid better behind the stone. “Even if you find that Azura or whatever, you really think she will be able to do anything against all these people?”

“I need to do something!” Luz said, glaring, “My mom could be a prisoner right now, I won’t leave her!”

“Why is she so important?” Eda responded, her voice harder than before, “You need to save yourself, kid.”

Luz slapped her—not sure how or when but she did—moving back. Eda's surprised face is incredible.

“Don’t you dare say that!” Luz's voice was shaking and her eyes scorching. “She is all I got, I’m not leaving her!”

Luz didn’t stay to discuss any further and ran by the well-known passages at the sides of the houses. She reached her house after a race, the air hardly getting inside her lung, but she was there. Luz jumped down to the roof of her room and got in by the loose tile on it. She fell to the ground with practiced ease and got to the curtain that separates the space.

“Are you alone in here?” asked a voice, one she didn’t recognize.

“I already told you, yes, I live alone!” That was her mom!!

She moved the curtain, just a little.

And the world froze in front of her. White robes, black clothes, masks…

The Emperor's Nation.

Another soldier entered the house and made a salute. “Sir, the commander is asking for us to go deal with the benders.”

“… It doesn’t matter, if you lie, we’ll just capture the remaining ones later.” the first soldier said and turned to the second one, “Restrict the prisoner and burn the place down.”

“Yes sir.”

“Mom…” Luz whispered, reaching for her sword, but stopping when her mother's eyes meet hers.

She shook her head, and then looked at the soldier—a fire bender who lighted up the walls of her house—offering her hands.

Luz was paralyzed and watched helplessly how her mom was taken away.

When the house was empty she ran to the living room. Her eyes were burning and the smoke was getting in her lungs. She reached for the few things her mom kept dear—even if said things were almost on fire too—in her sleeping place.

She took her dairy, the first aid bag, and the little painting of them when they got there.

“No, no, no…” she said between sobs, looking on as her home slowly turned to nothing in front of her eyes and she couldn’t do anything to stop it.

She closed her eyes when a spark went off too close to her face.

She returned to her room, gathering everything she could in a bag she took a little box and an extra quiver of arrows with a special end at the bottom.

She got out, balancing them the best she could and running in the direction to the plaza. She could still get Azura still save her mom, she could…

“People of this settlement!”

She stopped and looked up to where an air bender was speaking.

“The Emperor's Nation has found you! Rejoice, for you are now a part of the great nation of the true kings of all!!!” The man then started spinning. “Your rebel benders have been suppressed, there’s no point in fighting any further!”

Luz gasped, starting to shake uncontrollably, she fell to her knees. “No… no, Azura…”

“Hey, what are you doing here?!” She heard the shout, tensing immediately and looking back.

A soldier was coming.

Luz moved by instinct. She reached for her bow and quiver, shooting immediately. The soldier was surprised but recomposed fast, making a wall of earth, blocking the attack.

She didn’t hesitate and started running in the narrow streets, taking a deep breath, she sprinted, the screams are great, but she didn’t stop.

“You can’t run!”

_Watch me._ Luz thought.

The ground at her feet shifted, and she jumped avoiding an instant trap. Using a window's frame she jumped onto the roofs and kept running. The air benders screamed at her to stop too.

Luz reached the border of the camp; she just needed the last jump, one more step!

“Enough!”

The shout is followed by a blast of water that pushed her to the ground, the impact taking out all the air she managed to get in. Her things got blasted to the walls, leaving her with just her much more secured weapons.

She managed to get a grip on her sword and looked back. Three soldiers, one is the earth bender from before, the other is the air bender from the speech. Also, a woman soldier, she must’ve been the water bender that hit her.

The bitch…

“You can’t run.” the water bender said, and—apparently—she is the brains.

“I was doing just fine,” Luz said, taking a stance.

“Are you really going to use that?” the girl asked, taking her own stance, “You won’t have a chance if you don’t use bending against me.”

Luz didn’t respond to that, she just attacked.

The soldier moved the made a wave to cover her. Luz wasn’t letting that stop her; she dived in it, kicking the bender through the water and getting out as fast as she got in. She ran and swung her sword, reaching the chest plate of the uniform and tearing it apart.

Luz didn’t have time to deal with that. She jumped back, avoiding a stone that flew to her face. The earth bender attacked again. Luz ran to the air bender, jumping on him and using him as a shield. She then left the sword on the ground and took her bow, shooting one arrow. The soldier covered himself.

When he moved to the side to attack, Luz's second and third arrow hit him on the leg and arm.

“You stupid little bitch!” Luz heard the water bender scream.

Luz released a new arrow, then took her sword, throwing the bow at her; the girl stopped the arrow and bow. Luz then threw the sword.

“Stupid, that won’t work either!!!” the soldier smirked and blocked.

But she wasn’t prepared for the stone that hit her on the mask. In a split second, Luz pinned her down to the ground and knocked her out with a kick.

“You are the bitch…” she said, breathing hard and taking her weapons.

But before she could move, a wave of fire cut her way.

Luz groaned, taking her stance again and facing the source of the fire.

“Pretty impressive.” Luz heard the newcomer say. Their uniform was different; she was not wearing a white robe. Instead, she had a black hood, standing out like a sore thumb, and her mask was just half of one.

“Thank you.” Luz started to move, circling around with the girl.

“For someone who can’t bend, that is.”

Luz then just wanted to hit her, hard.

“But your luck ends here,” the girl said throwing fire at her.

Luz avoided it, running closer to the new foe. However she wasn’t like the others, she was prepared for her. Moving back she made a wall of fire. Luz hesitated for a second, before feeling her clothes.

She smirked. _Let’s do this, jerk._ She thought and then she was jumping head first in the fire and getting out on the other side, her rival gasping.

Luz got to swing her sword directly at her face, but at the same time, the soldier let a fire line go.

She cut the other’s mask and received a burn in the arm.

The sword and the mask fell to the ground at the same time, followed closely by blood. The red liquid ran down Luz's tanned skin the same way it does with the pure white-colored skin of the other girl.

“You…!” said the soldier, covering with her hand the cut Luz made in her eyebrow.

“Suppress the rebel!!” screamed someone new.

Luz moved back, flinching at the burn in her arm, and barely avoiding a wave of water and earth.

She looked around, new soldiers were cornering her. She tried to think of an escape route.

“You won’t be getting away from this.” the fire bender girl said. Luz locked her eyes with her, amber and hazel clashing.

The girl takes away her hood, exposing the emerald green hair, and moves closer to Luz. She, for her part, moves her brunette bangs out of her face.

“I won’t go down without a fight,” Luz said.

“So be it,” said one of the soldiers.

Fire, air, water, and earth were thrown in her direction and she took in a deep breath, closing her eyes, prepared for the impact.

The one that never came.

Instead, she felt how a wave of air surrounded her. She opened her eyes and a platinum mass of hair was in front of her.

“Eda?” she managed to say.

“… Why did you have to be so interesting kiddo?” Eda said with a smirk, “King, did you get her things?!!”

“Yeah!” King's voice came from behind her.

Luz was surprised to see the little spirit guardian charging with her bags.

“We are getting out of here kiddo,” Eda said.

“But my mom…!”

“All prisoners except for you were taken away.” King said, “You made them nervous. My praise to you, human.”

“Who do you think you are?!!” said one of the soldiers.

“Who cares, just end them!!” shouted another one.

“Eda, what are we going to do?!” Luz said, but Eda’s smirk got wider as she stepped forward.

Smirking, Eda spun her staff. “Watch carefully kid.”

The first wave is earth; Eda took a stance and creating a wall of stone. Then, she moved giving a spin, the water from the ground rose to make a shield that stopped the fire attacks. She pushed the steam with air and finishes off with a single move, roaring and releasing a huge wave of fire.

“What…?” Luz said, her whole body shaking.

“Yeah, Eda said she was something here in the human realm,” King said, getting to her side, “I think it was the… arva, or the rage …”

“The Avatar…” Luz said; all the air in her lungs gone with those words.

“Sorry for not being completely honest before kiddo.” Eda smiled and Hooty landed next to them, knocking down a few soldiers, “I’ll tell you who I am now.”

Eda then moved, closed her eyes, and when she opened them…

They were glowing.

Eda took a new stance and bent the earth, the air, and the water, elevating the ground, breaking the roof, and getting them higher and higher and _higher_.

And then they were outside, the sea millions of feet under them.

“I’m Eda Clawthorne, part of the order of air nomads, traveler of the whole four nations!” Eda took Luz by the good arm and King with her other one hand, jumping to the void to get on Hooty’s back in the middle of the air. “And I am the Avatar.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoping you got the ride you were expecting for!  
> OK; not so much about that, but I do hope you at least enjoyed the chapter. Give any thoughts you may have to me in the comments, I'll try to answer as much of them as I can, again, not spoilers though.  
> Thanks for reading and hope I'll have you here again next week!  
> G.U out, peace~  
> Hasta pronto amigos~


	3. As The World Is Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eda is sure things can work out the same way they did before she entered the spirit world. But her carefree attitude is about to hit a wall when Luz is forced to share a story she wishes was just a dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to all the people who commented on this story!  
> So, many people talk 'bout Luz and how she is going to be and all that super spoiler stuff, so no comment, this chapter is more worldbuilding than anything and I wanted you to know that!  
> Anyway, thanks again, and I hope you ppl enjoy this chapter too! see ya at the end!  
> Is read ya at the end, but what gives  
> ~(°w°)~

The great blue of the sky was something Luz would never grow tired of, nor the fresh air or the feeling of the wind in her face.

If only she could really enjoy those at her fullest.

“Still thinking about that?” asked King, moving closer to her.

“How could I not?” she said frowning.

King sighed. “Luz… There was no way of saving them.”

“Yes there was!” Luz turned to face him. “Eda is the Avatar! She could’ve saved my mom!”

She then turned to the woman, who was napping in the center of Hooty’s back.

“Luz, even the ‘Avatar’ wouldn’t have a chance against a whole armada!” screamed in response King, “I may not know much about this place, but I do know that hordes of mean enemies are to be taken care carefully!!”

She bit her tongue, looking away.

She knew King was right.

Eda broke from under a mountain to the top of the sky. Luz was sure her mom would have been saved in that moment, that she was looking at the return of the most powerful bender and her first victory in battle…

But she didn’t count on an armada waiting out there.

She counted thirteen ships in port, two had gone to the edge of the bay, over the entryway she used to get back inside the village, but the whole layout changed, the soldiers had made a tunnel of ice and stone, exposing the village to the eyes of Bonesborough.

And they ran, or flew, whatever, abandoning her mom, Azura and all the people she knew, and Luz lost consciousness just seconds after.

Waking up under a completely new sky with the avatar.

“It’s just…” She looked at Eda; the woman was pretty much in a coma for what she had slept through—one storm and a day and half—seemingly with no trouble. “When I heard stories about the Avatar from my mom, the elders, from Azura… they all made it sound like the avatar could… _would_ change the world if they reappeared… and I’m in the middle of the sky with the Avatar and she is…!”

She stopped, before dipping her head.

“… Not what I was expecting…”

She heard a rustle and turned back to Eda. The woman was up and drinking something from a bottle she got out of her bag; the only one attached to Hooty's saddle.

“Well, sorry kid, but I live to disappoint.” Eda said, standing and walking to the demon's neck, “How are you holding up Hooty?”

“I need to rest, hoot-hoot.” he responded, moving closer to the sea surface, “This world has no flying mountains to rest, hoot-hoot.”

Eda chuckled and looked ahead. “Yeah, humans don’t have those. The world doesn’t have a lot of the things it used to…” her head fell and she let out a sigh, moving her shoulders back before smiling, “But isn’t that exciting?!”

Luz stayed silent while the woman stretched with ease. The teen looked down. Facing a possible fall of kilometers, her stomach made it hard to even stay still. She would never understand how Eda could move standing in the middle of the air.

“Hey Eda, where are we going?” asked King, sitting in front of Luz, “The fish was good, but I’m getting tired of it. Your king needs variety!!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m also getting tired of it.” Eda said taking her staff, “The thing is I don’t know where we can hide something like Hooty… or you.” she added, moving to the front again.

“You don’t seem to be really concerned about being a wanted criminal.” Luz commented, she took her things and started to absently run an overall fixing.

Eda interrupted her when she started oiling her sword.

“What was that?”

“Eda, you just escaped from an illegal camp in the Emperor's Nation territory,” she said, putting the blade aside, “That’s a big deal now.”

“I thought you haven’t gone out of your little place since you were born.” Eda dropped in the saddle crossing her arms.

“I haven’t.” Luz got to her knees, taking her bag. “But I’m not lost.”

She took out a big folded piece of parchment; unfolding it she revealed the map of the world.

“Where did you get that?” Eda asked, reaching to take it, but Luz moved her hands, putting the parchment out of her reach.

“I took it from an Emperor's Nation ship,” Luz said, receiving surprised stares from Eda and King, “They were just a cartography group; they didn’t need all those maps…”

The other two burst in laughter, making her blush and look away.

“You just keep surprising me every time.” Eda said, brushing away a tear from her eye, “Who would’ve thought you were also a pickpocket?”

Luz didn’t say anything to that, she couldn’t deny it really.

“Anyway, let me see,” Eda said, taking the map from her.

“Hey!!”

“Just relax kid, I’ll get us were we need to be in a…” she stopped, her face freezing and shoulders tensing, “…a moment.”

“Eda?”

“Just a second…” She started moving the parchment in her hands, to the left, to the right, upside down.

Luz looked at King, but the little spirit guardian seemed as confused as her. Eda fought for a few more seconds before mumbling something and giving her the map back.

“On second thought, we can just go in a straight line and see where it takes us, yeah, let’s do that.” she said, sitting on Hooty’s neck.

“Ok…” Luz stared a few seconds before looking at the map.

What could’ve possibly bothered Eda so much? The cartography was perfect from what she heard when she took it; and the names of the places and directions were written perfectly clear in their places…

Luz let out an exclamation when the realization hits her, “Eda… could it be that you can’t… read?”

The way she tensed was all the answer Luz needed.

“O-Of course I can read, why couldn’t I?!” she rushed to respond, “Stop saying stupid things…”

“Oh my… crown!! You can’t read your own world's writing!!” King stood and pointed at Eda with his upper paws, “I gotta rub it in.” he said, before moving closer to her, “Hey, you, yeah you, the… the… the baby!! Yeah, baby! How come you can’t read?” He started laughing, “I’m so funny!!”

“Eda… it’s not embarrassing to admit it.” Luz said, moving slowly to sit next to her, “It’s been more than one hundred years since you last read anything… I’ll be surprised if any of the letters you knew were still used today.”

That seemed to have the opposite effect on her, making the woman look at the void with big unfocused eyes.

“Eda…” Luz tried to think of anything else to say, but before she could try saying anything, Eda raised a hand in front of her face.

“It’s OK kiddo, I get your point…” Eda said, sighing.

Luz didn’t say anything for a while, and they just stayed in silence except for King who kept making fun of Eda’s inability to read. It was just when they saw a fraction of land in the distance that they move.

“Get us down there, Hooty.” Eda told the demon, “You need to rest. We’ll look for food while you get some sleep.”

“I like that plan, hoot.” Hooty responded, getting down.

When Luz was back on the ground her stomach asked her for a clean-up. King stayed with her while she threw up in a hollow stump next to the border of the woods they just landed.

“This is awful…” she said, cleaning her face with her forearm.

“You’ll get used to it!!” Eda told her from the top of a tree, throwing fruit at them. King catches half of them while to other half gets smashed to the ground, “Be sure to not lose food, kid.”

“I’m trying just that…” she whispered, looking up and catching the first fruit that comes her way, “…Eda, are you sure you are picking right?”

“Why do you ask? It's fruit, it’ll be fine!!” Eda said, picking another one, “We are going to have feast!!”

Luz moved the fruit in her hands, before taking an arrow from her quiver and cutting a little of the skin.

The smell is sweet, but the thing she saw inside made her throw the fruit away.

“Eda stop!!!” Luz said rushing to take the ones King was holding and also getting rid of them.

“What, why?!!”

“My food!!!” cried King.

“These are carnivorus melons!!” She started to shiver, hands getting to her bow, “The fruit is deadly toxic and…!!”

Before she even finished her sentence something landed in front of the tree they were next to.

Luz let out a groan. “They grow in the giant falcon territory.”

The creature was a falcon, but bigger, stronger, with horns coming out of its head, and the most important part of course;

The thing had fangs in its beak.

Luz sighed, taking a step back, “Awesome.”

“Yes… you’ll be part of my army!!” King shouted moving closer to it, “Bow to me, you dumb beast!!””

“Not a really good idea.” Luz said, taking the little spirit with her, “This thing is known for being…” the beast attacked them and Luz barely managed to avoid it by jumping back, starting to run, “pretty aggressive!!!”

“Wow, this is something new!!” Eda screamed from the top of the tree.

“We need to run!!!”

“But, the fruit!!” Eda said, taking one in her hands.

“It's poisonous, we can’t eat it!!!”

Eda made a face and sighed, letting the thing fall down, before looking at the falcon.

“Is this thing also poisonous?”

Luz jumped behind a tree for cover, and looked at Eda, gaping.

“No, it’s not!!!” she said, anger filling her, “But it sure can kill us!!!”

The woman smiled before jumping off the tree. She moved her staff and the totem in the upper part opened its wings, the other end getting a type of tailfin at the same time. Eda stood on the staff, then an air current lifted her to the sky.

She was using air bending to fly.

“Then we just got ourselves dinner!!” she said smiling.

Luz sees the woman fly even higher up and moving in the middle of the air before releasing a razor sharp wave of wind that cut the falcon's wings.

Luz had seen blood before, as any hunter, but never that much.

“Sorry, but we’ll be getting chicken tonight!!” Eda screamed, now using fire bending to decapitate the beast.

It was almost ridiculous how fast it all ended.

“Fresh meat!” Eda landed smiling and got her staff back as it returned to its former form. “Tonight we can give Hooty a good part of these.”

“No more fish!!” King jumped out of Luz's grasp and ran to the falcon corpse, “I’m going to be full of you soon enough!”

Luz stared, shaking her head and sheathing her sword she started going away.

“Luz, where are you going?” Eda asked from next to the corpse.

“For other things to eat! We can't have just meat!!”

Entering deeper into the woods Luz looked back, not sure how she felt about what she just saw.

…

She got by mostly fine while collecting. The majority of her findings were due to her revising the books in her bag. Getting bloody apples was easy, then pears, and mangos…

She got back to the beach when the sun was setting. A great campfire had the wings and paws of the falcon being cooked. Luz gaged at the smell, and ran to where Eda was getting higher flames.

“What are you doing?!!” she screamed, stopping the woman.

“I’m cooking of course.” Eda said, crossing her arms.

“No, you are ruining the food.” Luz shook her head in disbelief, “You didn’t skin the meat… You even left all the feathers!!”

“Hey, we’ve been eating like this for years now.”

Luz gaped. “No, we are not doing this.” She turned to the fire. “First things first, put this out.”

“What?”

“Put it out.” Luz ordered. “I’m going to clean it.”

“But we are starving!!” Eda pouted.

Luz let groan and threw the bag with all the food she found at her. Eda caught it with ease.

“Eat those while I cook this right.” she said, turning again to the flames, “Please.”

Eda made a sound behind her but complied and the fire went off. Luz sighed and moved, taking out her sword.

She spent at least two hours working on one paw and one wing, getting the feathers out with the upper skin. She then drained the blood, passing to take away the fat and placing the meat in the same place Eda prepared before.

The bender had made little fires around, allowing Luz to see; the stars were already in the sky.

She made enough for everyone before looking at Eda and King. The little spirit was fighting with a mango while the older woman bit a bloody apple.

“You can light it up now,” Luz said, moving to them, “A small flame, let it cook, don’t burn it.”

She then looked at the rest of the bird, feeling a little down examining the creature before preparing her sword again. She moved to it and started to clean it too.

“What are you doing?” Eda asked after igniting the campfire again, the smell of meat cooking filled the air.

“Preparing the rest.” Luz said finishing with one rib.

“Yeah, I can see that, but why?” Eda moved closer. “Hooty can eat this raw with no problem.”

“It's not for Hooty, but for us.” Luz stopped her work to turn to Eda, “We need to preserve food if we are going to be moving around.”

“Preserve? We can just get something new when we need it.” the Avatar said, moving her arms, “That’s how the air nomads had done it since ever.”

Luz turned back to the corpse. “Well, I don’t know before, or the spirit realm, but here things are different… Since we are in war and all.”

Eda didn’t say anything for a moment, and then she was holding Luz by one shoulder.

“What do you mean?”

Luz sighed, considering how to let the cat out of the bag. She looked at the dead creature before her, a sudden sadness ran down her spine and through her soul.

“Since the Emperor's Nation appeared, it seems like life is being taken away from the world, or so my mom says…” she said, “Mom, Azura and the elders… also the information I got from the port, all is about how the Emperor holds everything like they own them… The bending, the lands, the food, the water…”

Luz stabbed the ground with the sword, and looked at her hands.

“Getting your hands on this much food is not the norm now, Eda.” she said, making eye contact, “The Emperor’s Nation has control over the sky with machines, on the ground with carriages and the sea with whole armadas.”

Luz moved to her bag and took out the map again, placing it on the clean—well _cleaner_ —ground, kneeling in front of it. Eda did the same.

“Here, the home of the Emperor, The Head of Three Eyes,” she started, pointing to a great isle in the top of the map, “is where their invasion started… They took control of all the land with an ambush to the Fire Lord. Since then, they took over the great cities with ease…”

“Cities?” Eda repeated.

Luz nodded.

“Ba Sing Se, Bonesborough Bay, Omashu, Kyoshi Island… Everything was taken by their army of benders.” Luz traced with her hands the places, shaking and her breathing uneven.

“What about the air monks’ temples? The water tribes of the north and south?” Eda asked, her eyes fixed on the map, her body tense.

“The Emperor couldn’t leave those places be… They were beacons of hope for everyone…” Luz closed her eyes, and points to a part on the end of the map.

Eda let out a gasp, the burned painted place making an obvious outcome for the place.

“The ocean and moon spirits were taken away.” Luz opened her eyes. “They are being held in the Emperor’s palace… The air temples were sealed and destroyed… There are some that somehow survived, mostly, and others they rebuilt… but they are all abandoned.”

Luz felt Eda’s body pressing next to hers, both of them are trembling, but Luz was the one who managed to speak again.

“There are a few places that haven’t fallen.” she got her hands in her bag, “The hidden villages in the west… the ancient library of the desert, the Plains village holds a fort, but is mostly because there is not really a point in conquering dead lands…”

“There is no hope then?” Eda said, and a mirthless laughter left her mouth.

Luz felt probably as hopeless as Eda sounded.

Luz closed her eyes, shaking her head. “No, there still is.” she said, taking in a deep breath, before looking inside her bag.

She took out a big sheet of paper, and placed it over the map.

“Just, not in the places where it used to be.” Luz said, smiling shakily at Eda.

She showed Eda another map, the new one was bigger, brighter in a mysterious way.

“Omashu is fighting the Emperor’s Nation.” Luz began. “They made an alliance with the Ember Islands and the air travelers without a home. They have been fighting the advances of the Emperor’s Nation for seventy years.” she said smiling, “The academy of the new fighters, Hexside, is held inside the tunnels of the Cave of Two Lovers and there is the new moving armada of Gladius,” Luz stood up and pointed each location on the map for Eda to see.

She looked at the woman in the eyes.

“There are people fighting to stop this invasion, to release the chains over the bending and free ourselves from their claws…” Luz then closed her hands in fists, “But they need help.”

Eda stared, before letting out a little, broken laugh.

“And you think I’m that help, don’t you?” she asked, standing up.

“You are the Avatar, Eda!! If there is anyone that can get these people to work together, it's you!”

Eda looked away. “Sorry kiddo, but that’s not right!”

“Why?!!”

“Because I’m not a hero!” Eda said, and a wave of air went off, pushing Luz back. “I’m just a person that can bend more than one element. I’m not a hero, nor a superior being, I’m just a person!!!”

Luz stepped back this time. She couldn’t talk. Eda seemed to get a hold of her emotions and looked away, her entire body stiff.

“…I’m not what you think of me, kiddo,” Eda whispered, “I’m just a disappointment…”

“Eda, the food!!!” King said from the camp fire, “This is way better than anything you ever made. Luz is the only cook I’ll have in my empire. Come and take a bite!!” he ‘ordered’ and the older woman went to him.

Luz watched her go away, and looked down to the maps, both overlapping.

“…Then what are we going to do?” she said, hot tears rolling down her cheeks and shaking almost as much as her hands and shoulders.

Without the Avatar the world was doomed, the hope lost and the freedom… _her mom_ was cast aside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So~~~ yeah, I made a mess of the world, but I do think this is the less it would've happened if many benders worked together, did you saw Republic city? damn, that was a hella military power there, the united nations that is.  
> Anyway, as from before, feel free to leave comments, criticism, and many other things that could help me improve in other works.  
> I'm still getting must of this, but is already written so... yeah, don't keep your hopes high on that aspect. But I'm sure you'll at least enjoy most of it.  
> Anyway! thanks for reading, feel free to comment, and now, see ya next week  
> G.U out, peace~  
> Hasta pronto.


	4. The Place Where Benders Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a not so charming conversation with Eda. Luz's relationship with the Avatar is going through a hard time.  
> Now, in an unfamiliar sky and waters, they must face what the Emperor's Nations has on its sleeve to chase them down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter out, hope you like it!  
> So, this story is writing but still in process of correcting somethings in many chapters, anyway. There isn't much to say today, just that I hope you enjoy this chapter as you did with the rest... hopefully.  
> Read ya at the end, fellas.

Luz's body was aching; she spent the whole night of her chat with Eda working with the corpse, cleaning it, smoking it, and then salting it to preserve enough food for all of them.

They had left the little island two days ago… and she hadn’t spoken to Eda since that night.

King was in her lap, receiving pampers in the back of the saddle while Eda was in the front, playing with her staff. None of them had touched the mater of where were they going. Hooty just flew in whichever direction he wanted.

“You can’t be like this forever,” King said at one moment, stretching and getting off her the next one, “you two are going to have to talk at some point.”

Looking down, Luz shook her head. “I don’t have anything else to say,” she whispered.

They were—again—over the sea; the last isle they left behind was too small to rest.

“No, but maybe you could listen? I’m not from this world, and I don’t get the whole ‘Avatar’ thing, but I can tell you this, Eda is human, just like you, she has things she can’t do.” He stood up and his voice was completely stern, “like washing her own hair.”

Luz laughed at that.

“See, a smile is better than that frown,” King moved to her food bag and got some jerky out of it, “you are going to grow older to fast if you keep it.” He finished biting the meat.

“Aww, you use your little fangs…”

King growled, turning away. Luz giggled before looking at Eda again. The woman was still working on her staff.

What was there to say?

Luz sighed, looking down at the water.

_What am I supposed to do now?_ She thought, passing a hand for her hair.

Her mother was a prisoner in one of the emperor’s prisons surely, she probably was a wanted criminal now, and she didn’t even know where she was after so long on Hooty’s back without checking the map, so she couldn’t go back to Bonesborough, and she didn’t have any money, so she would starve before doing anything else.

She was stuck.

Her mind then went to Eda’s issue.

Luz had met the Avatar after years, more than a century… and she wasn’t going to help bring balance to the world.

So much for a great prophecy.

Eda was powerful but refused to fight, something was wrong, but she couldn’t place it nor did she want to. Eda was not the person she expected the Avatar to be… not the person who could save her mom, let alone give balance and freedom back to the world.

“Are we going to be landing soon?” King asked in a shout. “I’m tired of all this water!!”

Luz looked at Eda; she finally had stopped working on her staff and was looking in their direction. Her eyes were livid, like the first time she met her.

“We should be close to a place with a village,” she said, looking at the front and breathing deeply, “Oh yes, I can feel the smoke in the air.”

Luz's ears perked at that.

“Did you just say… smoke?” Luz said, imitating her.

There _was_ smoke in the air.

“But that’s impossible.” She moved closer to Eda.

“Why is that, peak-squeak?”

Luz took another deep breath and her pulse blasted off to its maximum.

“Eda, the wind is coming from behind us!!”

The clouds separated, and Luz's fear got confirmed when an airship with the Emperor’s nation crest appears in her field of vision.

“What is that monster?!” King screamed hiding behind her.

Eda stood upstanding. “I have no idea!!”

“Is a zeppelin!!!” Luz turned to the front, “Hooty, get us out of here, fast please!!!”

“Ok, hoot!!!” the demon said, folding its wings and freefalling.

They disappeared in the sea of clouds and reappear under it, now at just a few inches over the water.

“What is a zeppelin?!” Eda asked her eyes still over them.

“Is a flying machine that was developed thirty years ago!” Luz said, looking in all directions, finding just water everywhere, “they have improved a lot since then!”

“Improve?!” asked King.

“At first they were slow and clumsy but now they are…!”

Her sentence was cut short when the said machine appeared over them.

“…Fast and precise! Hooty, to the right!!”

The demon reacted just in time to avoid a spear. Said thing held by a chain to the massive structure. Hooty moved in multiple directions under Luz commands, the ship attacking restlessly.

“This world is crazy Eda!!!” King said, digging his claws in Luz's clothes, “do something woman!!!”

Eda growled, before getting her staff.

“Keep it still for a sec!!”

“We don’t have a sec!!!” Luz responded and Hooty shoot to the left.

“Then make one!!!”

Luz glared at the woman, before standing too, taking her extra quiver of arrows and her bow. She shook with the new movement, almost failing, but managed to hold her steady posture.

_All or nothing_. She thought. “Don’t move Hooty!!”

“What?!!!”

“Trust me!!!” Luz then took one arrow with a little box attached just under the head.

A new spear was fired in their direction, and Luz aimed, realizing the arrow with deadly accuracy. Head and head crash.

And an explosion occurs.

If Eda was surprised she didn’t show it. The bender moved, making circles with her body and staff. The water under them moved for second before a great geyser shot itself to the air, crashing with the ship. But Eda hasn’t finished, she then took air, and the water froze, ice covering the metal.

Luz gaped at the power of the bender.

“Now kick it Hooty!!!” Eda said.

The speed rises; they left behind the falling airship. Luz fell on her back on the saddle; feeling like she was a mess with uneven breathing and a heart that could jump at any second out of her chest.

But she was alive.

“We did it…” Luz said, closing her eyes, the rush of adrenalin made her want to jump in excitement, but it was just enough to keep her conscious after all that.

“Somehow,” Eda said, sitting. “But we can’t let our guards down now.”

“We need to land.” Luz sat up, “move by foot for a while until we know flying is safe.”

Eda nodded, looking to the front.

“There is a line of land close by, luckily.”

“We still have to see if it’s good or bad luck.”

…

They did have at least a little luck and managed to land in a cove; the little hidden space perfect for hiding and making counts of their assets, plus, it had enough space between the trees to get out of the forest. While preparing Luz saw Eda using earth bending to make a mud cover for Hooty, the demonic being looked like a type of carriage.

Eda smiled at her finished work. “This will do.”

“Yeah, because a house that has wheels with no horse won’t attract any attention” Luz said, shaking her head.

What other choices they had other than roll with it anyway? Luz took all the things she couldn’t leave on Hooty’s saddle and passed next to Eda getting to the nature road.

“Kid, you need to relax a bit.”

They moved by the path between trees. With leafs covering them from sky threats, Luz and Eda moved with light feet, but Hooty and King kept doing noise with hard stomps and branches breaking at their weird marching group.

Besides that, they were in silence.

Luz sighed moving over a fallen tree, she stopped, tensing and making a sign to the rest.

King got to her side. “What’s it?”

“A town,” she pointed with her nose.

Luz turned back and shared a look with Eda, both of them nodding before moving on.

They left behind the cover of the trees and walk down the side of the woods, finding the main road, Luz could now take in different things while they move closer to the settlement. The soft soil under her boots or the smell of compost in the air told her about animals living nearby, she also saw burned spots here and there, with little to none vegetation besides grass in the surrounding area.

“You better keep it low,” Luz said, looking at King and Hoddie, “I doubt people around here has seen a demon or a spirit.”

“They lose; my magnificence is to be admired!” King said.

Eda made a face and lifted him, she threw him inside Hooty’s disguise.

“Hey!”

“Just keep it quiet,” Eda said, taking a robe from inside the thing and putting it on, “we don’t want any more problems.”

Luz nodded to the woman. When they were close enough to the town entrance, Luz was surprised to face a real lack of security, one guard looked at them before making a signal with his head; letting them pass.

Eda looked around and got next to Luz. “So much for a war zone.”

“We are in conquered territory; I’ll be surprised to find anyone who still wants to risk something,” Luz said back.

The town was little, with wooden houses and a single dwell in the center of it, a lot of small hills around the place.

“Is this normal?” Eda asked, looking at the people.

“What?”

Eda made a gesture with her head to look around. Luz did so and got faced with all the people, they were staring, but not at them, in fact, they were looking at anything _but_ them. There were mothers that seem to pay a little attention to them just to look away, returning to their chores as if there was nothing there.

“They are just wary I guess.” She shrugged. “They must not have a lot of visitors…”

“Can’t see why” Eda said, getting a hand to her nose, “and what is that smell?”

Luz took a deep breath regretted it immediately. There was _something_ in the air that making her gag.

“This is worst than a rotten squib.”

Both of them looked around, there was no sign of anything that could be the source.

“We just need to hide for a few hours and we’ll be out of here,” Eda said, moving to one of the hills, “let’s just settle behind one of these.”

Luz followed her trying hard not to feel the scent. They got to a shadow spot and Hooty was under one of the few trees there were in the town. Eda scratched her head, looking at both sides before taking her staff and using the movement to push away the air around them.

“Better,” she said, sitting on the grass, “that stink was going to kill me…”

Luz breathed calmly before sitting next to Hooty, the demon made a noise but she didn’t get what was it, her mind running about what just happened again.

_Just what were they doing here?_ Luz thought, taking out her map.

She passed over all the important spots, tried to figure out where they were, but the path was blurry in her head, and without any reference point she doubted an answer will just pop out of nowhere. Her eyes landed on Eda, the woman was sitting in the lotus form and had her eyes closed.

“What are you doing?”

“Meditating.” Eda opened one eye to look at her. “You?”

“Trying to figure out where we are.” Luz folded the map before putting it back inside her bag.

“Not really important but go ahead.”

“Not really important?” Luz asked, raising her eyebrows, “Eda, we are basically lost.”

“No, we are not. We just don’t know where we are.”

“That… that is being lost.” Luz sighed, massaging her eyes, “do you at least know where we are going?”

“I’m going to a little cozy place out of this stupid ‘Emperor’ territory,” Eda moved to lay on her back. “And live the rest of my days in peace.”

“Really, that’s all you are looking for?” Luz asked in disbelief, “a place to live and die?”

“What’s wrong with it? The world seems lost anyway, might as well relax and brush off my worries.”

“I can’t believe you, what about my mom, the world?”

“What do they have to do with anything?” Eda said, sitting again, “your mom got captured by a nation of warriors if you forgot.”

“So what? You just expect me to leave her behind and act like the only family I’ve ever had wasn’t taken away from me?”

Eda looked away and crosses her arms. “If you put it like that it sounds awful.”

Luz stared for a good two minutes before closing her eyes and standing up, her arms rigid on her sides and her teeth gritting against each other, she turned around.

“Where are you going?”

“Anywhere away from you, you don’t need me to find your perfect place in the world; you won’t help me get my mom back. For instance, I don’t have a reason to be with you.”

“And what are you going to do then?” Eda said, her voice a little higher, “it’s not like you know more than I do!”

Luz turned back at Eda. “I do know more. I know what I’m going to do; I know I can’t do it with you, for now, that is enough.”

“And how are you getting out of here?” Eda stood up. “If you have forgotten, I’m the one with the flying demon.”

“I’ll get a ship.” Luz raised both hands in the air. “A captain sure would like another pair of hands on deck; anyway it’ll lead me to save my mom.”

“You talk so big, but how are you going to save her? You can’t even bend!”

Luz flinched at that, felling a knot appearing in her throat as her eyes start to sting. A flash of fire returns in her memories, and she felt the paralysis from before, the freezing rush of panic. She closed her eyes shaking her head, trying, desperately trying to get rid of the images.

She failed.

“You think I don’t know that!!!” She screamed, glaring at Eda and getting her step back, “I pretty much know that I can’t bend, my mom could be here if I was a bender, I could’ve fought the emperor's nation instead of hiding, I could have saved my mom and I wouldn’t be here!!”

Luz turned, getting her hood up.

“Newsflash Eda, I’m bloody aware I can’t bend,” she said looking at her over her shoulder, “but that has never stopped me before, and heck, is not going to stop me now.”

If Eda said anything she didn’t hear it.

Luz was running away from her. Literally.

…

The town was small, and she stopped running when she saw the sea. Her breathing was out of control and the whole place stunk to something she couldn’t place. Luz looked for something that she could recognize, a common point travelers discussed back in the taverns of Bonesborough, or something she saw once in a book or map.

But there was nothing of the sort, just water, woods, and little hills.

“So much for finding a way out of here,” she said, rubbing her arm in her face, “don’t worry, don’t worry… someone’s gotta now where I am, I’ll just ask around.”

Her idea was quickly turned against her thought. No one was willing to talk to her. People seemed just so… scared of the new persons. One of them even threw a rotten cabbage at her!!

She sighed, sitting in the center of the town getting a piece of jerky she kept in her bag, biting it.

“This isn’t how it was supposed to go,” she said to the air.

“Excuse me miss.”

Luz looked down, finding a little boy with his red hair going all over the place; a great nose is popping in his face.

“Could I have some of that?”

Luz's eyes moved to her hands—to the peace of meat more exactly—and then to the child.

“…Sure?” she said, tearing the part she just bitted and handing over the rest, the child smiled before taking it.

“Thank you so much!” the little one said turning around.

“Hey, wait!” she stopped him, the kid looked at her with… fear? “Could you tell me where are we? I can’t figure it out with my map…”

His face relaxed, letting the fear aside; Luz is faced with a genuinely confused look in the kid's green eyes.

“We are on Conformatorium isle of course,” the little one said, throwing her a smile, “you came with the new shipload of slaves, didn’t you?”

Luz watched him go away, paralyzed. Breathing got suddenly harder, her mind rushed as she took out her map, checking her position-

“No way…”

She needed to move fast.

She ran to the exit of the town, sorting the forest again, that time she didn’t go to the small cove or followed the path, she just ran in a straight line, stopping only when she perceived a movement nearby. Her little recon trip had gotten her to a crag.

And she gaped, covering her mouth with a hand when she saw what was down there.

Another town awaited her there, but this one was different. She saw four towers in its limits, all rising high to the sky, a huge platform was in the middle of all constructions—which were no more than little one story houses—full of people preparing some pipes and tubes.

“This is it…” she said, turning around again.

“What is it kiddo?”

She jumped a little and looked back, her surprise just went up when she recognized Eda and King standing next to Hooty in the main path a few meters down from where she was.

She coughed, recovering her composure and moving down the path. “What are you doing here?”

The one who answered her was King.

“That place was too stinky,” he said, moving closer to her, “out here is better.”

“Besides, people down there were looking at me with weird glances,” Eda said, shaking from head to toe, “it was like they’ll attack me any second.”

“They could have,” Luz said.

Eda looked at her for a second before sighing. Luz still felt the scorching pain in her chest. Looking away from Eda, Luz repressed a sigh, she had more important things to take care of.

Luz slapped herself and started to move. “We need to move.”

She could get answers, but right then and there it would be impossible.

“What do you mean Kid?” Eda asked, tailing her.

Luz didn’t respond, walking while keeping an eye out, she stopped in a down-way road. She could hear Eda and King after her, but she didn’t stop, diving between two trees and stopping. She looked down the new risk in front of her, a beach, and a port received her this time, and her heart started beating faster at the sight of a ship.

Eda got next to her. “What is it, Luz?”

Luz didn’t say anything, she just pointed to the ship, a death glare in her eyes. The ship was in the middle of discharging their cargo.

“We are in a prison island…” King said from behind her.

And they were looking at the new shipment of prisoners being delivered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeap, first plot point, the whole deal with prisons, be it on Avatar or TOH is always a good place to start.  
> You can leave comments, criticism, theories, and what-not on the comments, I hope you liked the chapter and that you'll be around for the next update next Wednesday!  
> That would be all by now.  
> G_U out, peace~  
> Hasta pronto!


	5. Not the Avatar, but a hero

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fate is closing every second for Luz, will she be able to win against it? Or will she be swallowed up by the horrible things the world and its monsters have to offer?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A day later by internet problems! I'm so, so sorry, but here we are and I hope you can enjoy the reading.  
> Warning, I don't have a beta reader anymore so... yeah, I'm going to try to keep the same level but you may feel the writing a bi different from now on, anyway, read me at the end if you may!  
> Never placed before, but is a day of change, so:  
> The owl house and its characters same with Avatar TLA are property of their respective creators and Tv franchises and this story is purely by entertainment.

A group of people was guarding the gates to the ‘weird town’—as she had come to call it—and Luz could see the walls that put a limit in the terrain, there were people trying to get inside the place.

“Great, we can blend in,” King said, giving a step.

Stopping him, Eda made a face and pointed down. “Not so sure.”

Luz nodded; she had also noticed it, all that people…

They were all injured.

“What happened here?” Eda asked.

Their answer came with a burst. They looked up to the sky, and Luz was pretty sure she was gaping.

Airships appeared on the horizon, three of the same model they just beat, and six smaller ones.

“You gotta be kidding me.” Luz heard Eda say.

“Why are they here?” asked Hooty, “This doesn’t seem like a nice place Hoot-hoot.”

Luz looked at the town, their location had become obvious thanks to that kid, and she felt cold sweat dripping down her shaking arms and legs… her blood was ice in her veins at that point.

“We are in Crystal Lake isle,” Luz said, “also known as ‘Conformatorium’ Isle”.

“Sorry, where?” Eda asked, moving closer to her.

“Crystal Lake or ‘Conformatorium’, is where the Emperor's nation gets their fuel for their flying machines!!!” Luz shook her head, her breathing was getting overboard. “Those people must be miners… this is one of the most guarded places in the world!!”

“Well, it doesn’t seem so guarded,” Eda said, “I mean, we got here pretty fast.”

“We were flying as a small dot in their radar, and we were actually spotted if you don’t remember.” Luz got her things back inside in her bag. “We had luck they didn’t expect you to freeze them…”

They didn’t keep talking, one of the big ships passed over the town, they left people fall with chains attached to their backs. They used air to stop their fall and placed the chains on different pillars.

Luz took a shaking breath when she saw the people from before being thrown away when the doors closed.

“They are leaving their people out?” Eda asked, gripping her staff harder.

“The Emperor’s people don’t care about the ones that can’t be used.”

The other ships imitated the first one, staying one over the other. Luz watched how they let down tubes from the ships and how they connected them to multiple pipes in the ground.

“They must be supplying them,” Luz said, looking away, “They’ll be gone soon enough…”

A loud crash made look in the direction of the ships again. _What now, I won’t be able to…_ Luz thought, moving closer to the edge of their hideout in the bushes.

She tensed and cut her thoughts short, closing her fist and gripping her bow with all her force. In there, down the road, she could see a ship letting down people, but not soldiers...

Chained people, prisoners… slaves.

“How dare they…?” she said gritting her teeth.

Two groups of people were being pushed to move, the chains in their necks held them like animals. Luz's eyes moved over the entire group of new people, she couldn’t make out who they were, or anything relevant, but she could see the silhouettes, there were kids there, small ones…

“Kiddo, we can’t do anything,” Eda said, placing her hand on Luz's shoulder.

And that was it for Luz.

“Yes, yes we can,” she said, hitting Eda’s hand and turning to face her, “we can go down there and help.”

“Wha… are you hearing yourself?” Eda gaped and pointed to the ships. “Those are hundreds, maybe a thousand people against one bender, a little furball, an annoying big owl and a Kid, that’s not even a good start for a joke!!”

“We don’t have to fight alone!” Luz moved her arms and pointed the prisoners, “We free them, and then we can fight in equal terms.”

“Luz, they are no fighters, I can say from here, and the others are trained soldiers, this will be carnage!”

“My mom could be down there!” she said then, losing all her rage, “she could be there Eda…”

Eda stared in silence before looking down. “… Kid, I wish I could do something, but there is an _army_ down there… I can’t beat something like that, I’m not that strong.”

Luz stood there in disbelief, forcing herself to comprehend the idea of the most powerful bender in the world not being strong enough, not having enough power for anything at all. She looked down at the weird-town, to the ships and soldiers, and she saw her mom being taken away, her mom getting to use a collar and be treated like an animal. She could be saving her, and other people, from that with Eda’s help, if Eda dared to fight as the Avatar!

_But she won’t, she won’t even try._ Luz thought.

What a joke that was!

Luz gripped her weapons harder. “We could help,” Luz said, “we could save them!”

“We can’t, _I can’t,_ ” Eda said in a low growl, “there’s no way we’ll beat them, those people are lost, Luz.”

“Not if we help!”

“We can’t help!!”

“The avatar could!!” she said finally, “you are supposed to be the greatest of all benders, I saw you freeze a whole ship in seconds. You could waltz in, get my mom, and destroy this stupid place if you wanted!!”

“That was that and this is this!!” Eda shook her head. “What if your mom is not there? Have thought about it? Would this place be so important if you knew for sure she is not inside?!”

Luz stopped and pondered it. “No, it wouldn’t.”

“There it is!” Eda laughed. “You don’t care about me being the Avatar and not helping, you just want your mom back!”

Luz held Eda’s eyes after that. She didn’t move an inch at the accusation, there was nothing in her to deny it.

“Yes, you’re right,” Luz said softly, “I’m selfish, I’m just a _girl who wants her mom back_ , what’s wrong with that?!”

“Nothing! But pushing me overusing some kind of moral value while being like that; is hypocrisy!”

Luz shook her head. “I thought the Avatar was supposed to put the world over themselves.” Luz looked up to Eda. “Why are you so scared if you are the most powerful person in the world? Is it not your duty to help people like me?”

“Stop it…”

“The Avatar is supposed to save us, is not like that?!!!” Luz pressured, “Why won’t you help the people who are in need, the spirits, the world made you the Avatar so you _have to help!”_

Eda then made a ring of fire, pushing Luz back; she started to shivers, but the fire is not the only reason for it.

Eda’s eyes were shining, and there was a tear in her left eye that almost fell, but the woman rubbed it with her hand and her expression became hard,

“Sorry to have to break it to you again kid, but I’m not that great of a person!!!” she screamed, the fire getting higher, “I have never been, and certainly I’m not now, do you think I chose this? ‘Cause I didn’t, I didn’t want this stupid burden of being the Avatar, I’m not a glorious savior!!!”

Eda turned her back on Luz, moving just a step before stopping, looking over her shoulder. Luz was paralyzed, her eyes shining with tears that are running down her cheeks.

“… The Avatar just bends a little more than other people,” Eda said, looking back to the front, “I don’t know about some mystical mission or whatever… but the Avatar is no god, so stop thinking I’m one.”

Luz watched the woman take her staff and walk up to Hooty, King was seating in the demon’s head, completely silent.

Luz looked down; gripping her weapons with so much strength that she felt her nails dig themselves in her skin. Her mind fought to process it, to accept it. She looked up at Eda, the woman was holding her staff just Like Luz held her bow, desperately, like a lifeline holding her.

The image struck her with an epiphany; Luz felt how something fell in her at the sight. Eda was vulnerable, no the powerful woman she projected all that time, nor the fairytale her mother told her.

Eda was just… just another person. Luz stopped thinking about Eda as the Avatar—she tried, at least—and took a deep breath.

“I’m sorry,” she said, Eda is still wouldn’t face her, “I’m sorry for trying to place such high stakes on you, you are right… I’m a hypocrite, and I just… I just want my mom so bad…”

Luz looks down and shallows the knot in her throat.

“But that doesn’t change the facts… these people need help, they need _something_ Eda… anything.”

Luz turned, looking at the people getting inside the town.

How could she talk about justice when she didn’t really care?

The image of her camp came to her mind; the fire, the empty houses, and the emptiness she felt in her chest at the sight of her mom being taken away. She took a deep breath, before looking back.

“You may be right, and the Avatar is not that special, we are nothing special… but these people need help, they need someone to remind them that there is something worth fighting for.”

“And you think the Avatar is that person?” Eda finally looked at her. “That the world choose _me,_ to be that _one_ person? To be some kinda _hero?_ ”

“I’d like to, but I can see that’s not it, it’s not going to be that.”

And Luz looked felt the wetness in her hands, blood dripping down her palm. It triggered her, the pain from the injuries Eda treated before, the images of her camp, her mom being taken away from her, the hopeless feeling, the paralyzing fear, and the terror that still haunted her.

She drew a deep breath. “But I know something; I’m not waiting to save my mother.” Luz looked at Eda. “I may not be anything special, I _know_ I’m not… but I’m going after my mom.”

Eda moved to face her. “You’ll die for sure if you go down there.”

“Maybe, but I’m going anyway,” She started moving, and kept her eyes on Eda’s before adding, “I’m not waiting for someone to help me… I was stupid for expecting some fate decided thing like a story to happen.”

“Then what are you going to do kiddo?”

Luz then said the only thing she can.

“I’ll choose hope.” She stopped; standing next to Eda and turned to face her with a smile. “I’m choosing myself.”

Eda stared at her, and Luz looked ahead again.

“I’m not sure what I can do, I don’t know if I’ll make it OK… but I’m going after my mom, I’m helping the people I can as long as I can get to her.” She closed her eyes. “I’ll be _my own hero_.” She opened her eyes and took a breath. “You are free to help me if you want.”

And she started to run.

…

Luz stood in the middle of a group of bushes looking at the new group of prisoners being moved from the docks to the little weird-town. The soldiers, the guards, and the officials of the Emperor’s nation all wore different uniforms; she identified the guards and the soldiers to have basically the same outfits. A grey band over the white hood being the only difference she caught so far. 

The prisoners caught more of her attention thought.

They were all wearing grey, she could see their faces, all of them seem… off, their eyes dark and their movements were like the ones of a puppet.

“What did they do to them?”

She didn’t have time to dwell on it.

Luz ran, getting at the back of the group. She waited, and one of the guards walked in a different direction, parting from the group. Luz followed, the guard was a girl for her luck, and she got her mask out. Any other day Luz would’ve paid more attention to the girl.

But she was in kind of a rush.

Luz took a stone and threw it to her head, the impact is perfect, and the girl fell to the ground. Luz rushed next to her, holding her head, cursing at the fact that there is a little blood on the soil.

“I’m so… so sorry,” she said, taking her pulse and finding it normal, she was still breathing too, “really hope I didn’t mess her up…”

Apologizing at least six times while taking the girl's clothes didn’t make her feel any better than before.

_Mom would be so mad…_ She thought, placing the clothes over her own.

The uniform was a little… big. The fact that her clothes were under it helped to fill the gap. Looking back at the naked and unconscious girl, Luz felt like the villain and her little speech back with Eda hit her.

She groaned and sat the girl, taking the spare clothing from her bag—she still carried everything, why didn’t she left it with Hooty?—and sighed. She should be better now.

With a last look, Luz moved to the road, there weren’t any people around, so she started to jog in the direction of the settlement. She didn’t need anyone being suspicious.

“Please, please, please, don’t wake up too soon,” she whispered, hiding all things under the cape of the uniform.

…

The walls of weird-town came in pretty fast. Luz walked until she was just out the rank of sight of the guards. She looked at the mask, shivering a little. Letting out a heavy sigh; Luz reached her face, checking her disguise.

“This is for you mom.” Luz started advancing.

The guard looked at her making her stop, studying her carefully before making a gesture with the head. She pointed to the only open gate at the side of one of the walls, she nods, moving along.

 _I’m in!!!_ She thought, resisting the need to jump, sighing in relief.

She looked around carefully. The town was devoid of houses; even it appeared to have them from above, Luz was faced with factories and mines making the role of houses, all structures had a type of tube that went to what she supposed was the storage.

She watched out for the guards for about an hour, hiding in the small shadows she could find. There were ten each turn; the principal part of town was guarded by the double of those.

_Well, nobody said it’ll be easy…_ She thought; sighing.

Luz saw the pipes that connect to three of the ships. Each one was making an incredible noise, and the smell in the air was too strong for her to not gag.

Looking around the tube she started to breathe from her mouth. “What is this pest…?”

She tripped with something and looked down. There was a door on the ground. Luz moved slowly, taking special care so no one saw her, she then fought a little with the lock, opening it on her third try.

She almost wished she hadn’t.

“Oh my…” she said, looking away.

Down there was a river of pestilent water, but not just that, she could feel it on the air that came out of the hole in the ground even over the pestilence.

Blood, and gas.

She looked down again, just to confirm her suspicious; corpses, multiple animals as well other creatures are rotting own there, she also saw little cracks on the walls and the whistle of the gas filtrating from there had a high pitching tune.

“Always knew they had to use some kind of special fuel to those ships,” she said, shaking her head, “I never thought it would be something like this…”

She looked around again, and she closed the door when she finds her objective.

The worker’s quarters.

She ran this time, taking in the opportunity the shadows of the airships gave her, and reaches the place with ease, looking out for real guards and finding none, she entered.

“On her!!”

The scream startled her, and Luz felt an extra weight in her back, and then she was on the ground, the earth around her moved, holding her down.

“Hey, what the hell dude?” she said looking up.

“We finally got a guard, and she is not an earth bender,” said a voice, and a pair of hands took away her mask.

Luz was then faced with a weird-looking guy with incredibly big eyes.

“Hey… you are not one of the common guards,” he said.

“Of course she is not, there are a lot of ships here,” said another person before Luz decided is enough of being part of the ground.

“Sorry to break it to you guys, but I’m not a guard,” Luz said and tried to look at the new person.

“Yeah, and you are dressed like that for what?” asked another voice, “you can’t fool us!!”

“Guys, I’m not a part of these stupid soldiers!”

“Quick, she is going to bend!”

Luz fought with the earth but the damn thing didn’t budge. She was left in there, fighting a lost battle while the others looked at her.

“Why aren’t you bending?” said the first voice.

Luz opened her eyes and faced a girl; she had a high ponytail and had a pair of fangs poking out her mouth.

“I’m not a bender,” she said, looking away.

“What?” Another voice butted in, “a soldier who can’t bend?”

“The Emperor would never accept that,” the fang girl said, before looking again to Luz, “who are you?”

“… I’m an outsider,” Luz said slowly, “I came here because the Emperor’s nation took my mom.” She then added. “And I want her back.”

The other girl stared at her, before nodding to someone behind Luz. The earth moved and she was free.

“Thanks,” Luz said, rubbing her wrists.

“This is great, the first guard we capture and it’s not a guard,” the girls sighed, shaking her head before extending her hand to Luz, “I’m sorry, but we’ve been planning this for so long, it’s kind of a downer.”

“Don’t worry, no hard feelings,” Luz smiled, taking her hand, “I’m Luz, Luz Noceda.”

“Well, hi Luz, I’m Fan.” The girl presented herself.

Luz nodded before looking back; there was a bunch of people staring at her. And there was the guy with big eyes.

“Sorry… for pinning you to the ground,” he said, looking away.

“Hey, it’s not important, if there was a real guard there, you’d be amazing.”

“He is Eyeb,” Fan said, “he is one of the few decent benders around here, I, of course, am other of those.”

“Also me!” said a third.

Luz had to look down to find a little redhead with blue eyes moving—too proudly—a stone.

“Aren’t you the kid from the town?” she asked crossing her arms, and the little figure stopped bending, before gaping at her.

“You are the lady of the dry meat!” the kid suddenly said.

“So it is you,” Luz giggled a little.

“I see you met Con already,” Fan said, sitting on a stone.

Luz turned to face her. “Yeah, kind of.”

She looked around; the rest of the people in the place seemed to be more… wary. None of them seem to be willing to talk to her apparently.

“Don’t take it personally.” Fan smiled at her. “They are just sore; any person that comes in here dressed like that tends to be a jerk.”

Luz nodded. All the people were pretty much afraid of the chance of her being a guard in disguise probably. Luz made out some elders, kids, and young adults.

But her mom is not there.

“Is this all the new people?” she asked, getting her hand to her chest. “or any of them?”

“All those who weren’t sent to work on the mines, are here,” Eyeb said.

“The newcomers are sent to the refinery.” Con moved next to her as he spoke.

Luz closed her eyes; she let the disappointment sink before turning to Fan. The girl is playing with a little water in the middle of the air.

“Where is the refinery?”

“Really?” the bender girl said, dropping the liquid, “Hey, not gonna lie, your costume is pretty cool, but you are not getting in there, is top security level.”

“No one except a high rank gets in,” Cons added, looking out the tent.

Luz fixed her disguise. “I need to go there.”

Fan stood up, watching her from head to toe.

“Luz, right?” she asked, and Luz nodded, “even if I told you, what do you expect to do there?”

“…I’m looking for my mom… I’m going to get her and blow this place to bits.”

“And why do you think you’ll be able to do it?” Fan shook her head. “We all here tried to get this place to burn to ashes, but we couldn’t, and you won’t be able to do anything neither.”

“Our best chance is to run away,” Eyeb said, passing his hand over his eyes.

“That’s why you want a guard?” Luz asked, looking at Cons, the kid nodded looking away.

“We are getting out of here, to never come back,” Fan said.

Luz looked at them before biting her lip. “…Please tell me,” she said... begged, looking at Fan in the eyes.

“Is a suicide,” Cons told her.

“Even if it is… I have to go.”

Fan kept eye contact with her, and they stayed silent for a minute or so before the other gave in.

But she didn’t have the time to tell her anything.

The tent got opened by someone from outside; Luz spun in her place just in time to receive a full blow of fire in the middle of her body; the heat alongside the impact threw her at least two meters back.

“We have an intruder!!” she heard the shout.

Luz looked up; the soldier was moving closer to her. She took in a deep breath before rolling to hide behind one of the rocks on the ground. She drew her sword out and gritted her teeth jumping to action.

The soldier was not really prepared for her to throw her sword at him when he avoided it, Luz tackled him to the ground and hit him, her hand got a cut from the mask, but she didn’t stop, she hit him again, leaving him unconscious.

“Wow…” she heard someone, raising her head she saw the surprised faces of Fan, Cons, and Eyeb.

“You actually knocked him cold…” said the little redhead.

“Yeah, been practicing.” Luz stood up and started looking for her sword, she saw it in next to the entrance and walked up to it, flinching to the cut in her hand when she tried to pick it up, “damn it…”

Luz shook her head and tore a part of her clothes and makes an improvised bandage, once she had finished, she moved, taking her sword.

“I don’t have time now…” she said, looking back to them. “Please, tell me where the refinery is.”

Fan stared at her; the girl had started a battle of wills that Luz would not allow herself to lose. After a few seconds, Fan shook her head standing and guiding her out of the tent, and then she pointed out the great platform in the middle of the town.

“Down there,” she said, turning to look at her, “you better be careful, there is a lot of that mix they use in the airships, one spark and all this place will blow up to the sky.”

“Got it,” Luz nodded, preparing her mask and hiding the sword in the cape, “thank you.”

She didn’t wait for a response if there was one.

Her feet took her to the common ground. A few guards were already running in direction of the workers' tent, she moved as fast as she could to get to the entrance to the underground from before.

She was about to get to the place when a huge wall of fire appeared in front of her.

“Where do you think you are going?” someone said.

Luz turned, prepared to attack.

… And stopped when recognizing a green hair girl standing in front of her, the scar in her shoulder stinging at the moment their eyes met.

“To guard the refinery,” she said.

The girl smiled, before shaking her head and taking her position.

“I could recognize the weapon that made this to me,” she pointed to the scar in her eyebrow.

Luz looked down; the fire had revealed her sword. She curses before looking at the soldier.

“You really hold a grudge don’t you?” she said, moving the weapon to the front.

“I’m not letting… I _can’t_ let a no bender get away with hurting me,” the soldier responded, moving in circles, Luz imitates her, “I’m sorry, but you ran out of luck.”

“Really? I mean, you tried to kill me and let a pretty bad scar too, so I guess we could call it even…” a blast of fire passed almost hitting her in the leg, “I’m guessing not!”

She took a deep breath, placing her eyes on the possible weak points of her opponent, then she jumped ahead. The soldier threw a long fire wave, Luz jumped over it, before finding footing again and running in different directions, avoiding the fire for less than inches,

“Stay put!!”

“As if!!”

She managed to close distance with the last push and attacked, the flat of her sword passing the defenses of her rival and finding the strong material of the uniform. She can’t press further, the cut in her hand shoot pain through her entire arm; Luz pushed just hard enough to recover the initial distance.

“Stop right there!!!” said another voice.

Luz pulled back thankfully in time to avoid a… gem? She turned, another bender was facing her. The newcomer moved and from the ground came out an aquamarine-colored stone. Luz avoided it and rolled to the side, at that moment a wave of fire went to her head, forcing her to duck.

“What the…?”

She couldn’t finish that sentence; a crystal hit her in the stomach, taking away all the air she had managed to gather.

Luz covered her body with the cape in the spur of a moment, the material received the fire blast for her and she rolled in the ground before hitting something hard and _damn hot_.

“You OK Amity?” Luz heard and raised her head just enough to see her rivals.

The green-haired girl was holding her side, a hand still held out to her. The other soldier was a ginger girl who had a strange tattoo of an eye in the middle of her forehead.

“Can’t believe such a looser was giving you problems,” the new girl said, looking at Luz, “she can’t even bend, right?”

The green-haired girl glared at her. “Shut it.”

“Oh my emperor, Amity Blight is actually suffering against a no bender!”

“Could you not say my name in front of the enemy?!!!” the green-haired soldier—Amity, Luz recognized—screamed at the other.

“Sorry, sorry, but what does it give?” the third eye bitch said, “she as good as dead anyway.”

Luz reacted to that. Moving to stand she felt what was behind her with her foot. She smiled when recognizing the metal; before standing up.

“Who told you to move?” asked the third eye.

“I don’t need your permission,” Luz said, trying to get a better grasp of her sword, but the cut got worse.

“Don’t talk back. What is so funny?!”

Luz couldn’t resist it, and she _giggled_. “Nothing, nothing… well, actually.” Luz smirked, looking at the girl’s eyes, “is funny you think you are strong enough to make me.”

“Ah?!! The one whose about to die here is you!!!”

“Sure?”

All the mocking got exactly what Luz wanted.

“Boscha, no!!!!” Amity said, but it’s too late.

Luz jumped aside when the attack of crystals came her way. The precious stones smashed against the metal, tearing it apart in no time at all.

“Shit.” Luz heard the girl say.

The tube finally broke; realizing the fuel that was going to the ships flows in a river—a very stinky one, if Luz might say it—and hit both girls, pushing them away. Luz got to her feet, shaking a little she held her stomach.

The hit was great.

“I… gotta go…”

Moving slower than before and trying to regain control of her breathing again. She found the door to the underground areas, and to her surprise, it was open. Luz prepared her sword; entering the dark place she faced the odor from before but _stronger_. Luz followed a hallway of steel, filled with gas and fireflies in jars.

“They can’t use fire, of course…” she whispered, turning a corner.

The place was slightly more illuminated than the rest. Luz hid next to an open door to another hallway when steps started to sound in the distance. She caught the sight of a group of soldiers.

 _First sight this place is guarded at all._ She thought.

One of the guards stopped moving and closed the distance with Luz hideout. She prepared herself for an attack, no confident in the fact that a burned cape and a sword would pass as real guard anymore. Each step is louder closer…

And they stopped when a powerful shout came. “There is a leak in the upper levels, we have to seal the flow to the tanks on ground!!”

The steps reappear, this time Luz sighed in relief; the sounds became more and more distant. Waiting for a second, she moved in the opposite direction. There a stone staircase awaited her.

“How far down goes this thing?” Luz groaned, starting her downfall.

…

A cave was the place, Luz—ironically—desperately tried to reach. She stared at the huge river flowing down there. The fuel odor mixed with something she couldn’t make out. The scene just got weirder and weirder the longer she kept her eyes on it.

Luz gaped, gripping her sword stronger. “What is happening…?”

She saw water benders moving water from the river to giant pools full of animal corpses, next to them were air benders who seemed to be manipulating something to some pipes going to the celling alongside with tubes from the pool.

Luz shook herself from the shock with a slap. She needed to move.

Looking directly at the walls; she located the guards watching at a single area after one of the pools. Moving as silently as she could; Luz made her way in the shadows. Then she found all the—clearly forced—workers. Luz's eyes got bigger when she recognized one of the women now water bending the river.

_Azura…!!!_ Luz thought, moving forward. _If she is here…_

She passed by the blind spots of the guards. Reaching the corner she took a few seconds, before taking a little stone and throwing a rock to the woman’s head. She didn’t budge at that.

“Oh for the love of…” Luz cursed before trying again.

With a groan, Azura turned. “What?!” her eyelashes went up, and the woman was gaping. “Luz…?”

“Hey, Azura,”

Luz and was pretty proud of herself for not losing it like all the other times she had talked to her.

Like that time she threw up her lunch, literally threw it up, and it landed in her head.

“What are you doing here…?” The bender said, turning to the river again.

“I’m here to save you guys.” Luz lied a bit; getting closer. “Where is my mom? I gotta get her out of here…”

Azura stopped bending for a second and her shoulders went stiff. She then let out a broken laugh, one that made Luz freeze.

It was just as her mother told her it would be… a dead person laugh.

Azura’s next words came like an arrow. “Your mom is not here.”

And Luz felt her blood running cold.

“Wha…Wha-what…? Azura, don’t joke like that…”

“I’m not playing games here.” Her voice was hard and Luz almost felt like Azura hit her. “Your mom is not here, this Isle is just for benders, the others were sent to another ship on the way here.”

Luz's mind collapses between relief and worry. While her mother was still… alive, she didn’t have any idea of where she was now, her only lead gone as fast as she got it.

Shivering, Luz tried to keep the calm. “Where is she then?”

“Don’t know, not like the prisoners get much of an explanation…” Azura then looked back at her, “Kid, you need to get out here before they find you.”

_Of course, I have to!_ Luz thought. She knew that trapped in a cell she wouldn’t be able to anything. She was about to move when the words she had told Eda hit her.

She looked at Azura, at all the benders trapped. And a sudden rush of shame washed just like iced water. She was no hero, and she held no right to talk to Eda the way she did.

“What, but what about you?” Luz looked down. “This isle is full of benders, why don’t you fight back?”

“Is not that simple…”

The memory of Eda telling her the exact same words flashed in her mind, irritating her. Luz was getting tired of that stupid phrase.

“It’s that simple!” she said out loud, “Why are you all the adults so complicated?!”

“Because the world is not that simple!!” Azura shouted, and the water she was moving stopped in the middle of the air, freezing.

Luz stepped back.

Looking at her mess, Azura moved and melt the water, returning to work. “They are worse than you think,” Azura said, “They have ways of dealing with us…”

Luz couldn’t believe it. Azura, the best bender in her camp, the one that had fought the Emperor’s advances and who was always so brave and shiny… was afraid, terrified… _broken._

“You!!!” A voice screamed in the distance.

Guards.

“Stop right there, intruder!!!”

“Run kid,” Azura said, “run fast and never look back… don’t let them get you.”

And she flashed a broken smile at her, one devoid of hope or will to fight.

Luz fought her burning eyes and did as she was told, gripping her sword and running deeper into the cave.

She disappeared in the shadows and stuck to a wall, tears were rolling down her cheeks and her grip on her sword was so strong that made her wound start to bleed. Her pulse was mad, the emotions in her head crashing one against the other trying to place themselves on the top. Luz still couldn’t believe the things that happened, what she just saw…

And there is when the hope vanished from her mind.

Shaking; Luz fell to the ground. “Is this… _heartbreak?”_

Azura’s eyes came back to her mind, and the lifeless green that stared back at her made Luz feel so… weak. She heard steps but didn’t felt like standing, her whole being drained from energy. The information she received now piling in her head…

Her other was not there, Azura was broken, she was in a cave, _trapped…_

The steps got closer.

“Is just as Eda said…” Luz whispered.

She thought of Eda, the woman flying in the sky a thousand miles away already. The image made her mad for a second, she could be there with Luz, she could make her part and taking responsibility.

There she felt like laughing. Thinking about responsibility in her situation. More steps, louder, closer. She tried to stand, falling again.

“You can’t do this now…” Luz said to herself, standing while holding the wall. She took a shaking step forward.

There was a mysterious sound coming from further inside the cave, she followed it almost unconsciously. Her path led her to another cavern, this one was not alerted, Luz felt the potent smell of gas in the air and covered her mouth and nose with her free hand.

Looking around, she let out a halfhearted giggle. “It’s a dead-end…”

Eda’s words came back, and Luz fell to her knees.

The steps were loud enough now. Luz looked at the ceiling; thoughts of her mom flashing by her eyes.

Fan, Cons, Eyeb, and the other refugees were next; the image changed to add Azura and then herself in there. Before all became red and black.

She was no bender; she was _disposable_ … as always.

_I’m not making a difference…_ She thought, looking down her sword in her hand now seemingly useless.

She moved the weapon in front of her eyes, remembering her birthday, when her mother told her that even if she couldn’t bend, she will be protecting them, both of them

“I’m sorry mom… in the end, I couldn’t protect anyone… not even me.”

One of her tears fell in the metal blade… and a shine got to her eyes.

Luz blinked too fast, and after a few seconds she looked up. Was almost impossible… it couldn’t have been that…

But it was.

Luz could see a light in the ceiling, and she couldn’t think in any way for that to be possible, except for a miracle.

She then looked at the river.

“Intruder!!!!”

Luz shivered, and the weight of the sword in her hand made her snap out of the confusion.

What was she doing? She couldn’t give up, not yet, not there and definitely no to them!

With shaking legs, Luz used the sword as support to get up. “If no one else will fight, then I’ll do it.”

She took a split-of-a-second choice and ran towards the river. One of the benders pushed a wall of earth in front of her. With a jump Luz hit the ground, rolling she managed to get next to the river.

_Really hope this works!!!_ She thought before throwing her sword to one rock formation.

“Take cover!!!” screamed one of the guards.

Luz dived in the river and felt how the current tried to push her. But a powerful shockwave did it first. Crashing against a wall, she barely managed to hold her breath. When she broke over the water surface there was sunlight hitting her face.

Luz stared at the great hole that was now over her head.

“How did I survive that?” she whispered, before feeling something around her. It took her just a few seconds to understand it.

_Water_.

Luz moved, but before she was out of the river, she got pulled above the ground, suspended in the middle air, she saw the benders. Three of them were still OK, the small wall of earth crumbling to nothing, Luz managed to get the image of five soldiers unconscious on the ground.

She almost threw up at the amount of blood.

At the back, she saw Amity and Boscha, both of them seemed to hurt, but they walked up to the group just fine. Luz saw all the distance between them and the rest of the soldiers, surely their little swim left a mark.

“What, have you, done?!”

Luz recognized the voice, and her eyes managed to get a hold of the person. One of the soldier's masks now down exposed white skin and brown eyes. Luz didn’t connect the face, but the voice echoed in her ears.

The water bender from the raid to the camp.

_Why did it have to be this…? She_ thought; her mind getting cut short when the water constricted her neck.

“You are not going to see another dawn…!” the girl said.

Luz felt her heart beating at a mile per hour, she tried to reach her neck and release the pressure, but the water held her still. She started to feel how her mind slipped away from consciousness; every second was more painful than before, her arms losing strength gradually, same as her legs.

_This is it then…?_ She thought, her vision becoming darker with every second.

“Let her go!”

The scream came with a wash, the water letting her slip. Luz hit the ground before she takes air in.

Breathing in a painful—too painful, it felt like downing nails—way she looked up; a hand was holding her still, while the light around her disappeared, Luz could make out a wall of earth and pretty tiny feet.

She tried to speak but her neck still hurts, making the words comes out rusty and low. “Who…?”

“You really know how to make a show kid,” said the person.

Luz's eyes focused enough to recognize things now.

That was not a wall.

“Hooty…?” she said, trying to stand.

The demon screamed in direction to the soldiers before looking at her by turning its neck… upside-down.

“Hey Luz, where have you been? I was Lonely!” Hooty said to her before getting a little too close, “It’s not the same with only two on.”

She was speechless; her eyes moved to the smaller figure that was throwing stones at the soldiers, King caught her stare and throws another stone before moving close to her.

King was clearly crying. “Never do this again!!!” he said, pointing at her, “I can’t eat Eda’s food now, you’ve been designed to feed me!!”

“Why are you here?” Luz asked; turning to the last person she would’ve expected to see there.

Eda returned her look and held it, she got to her knees and bent the water; placing it in her neck. Luz shifted at that, but one look into the woman's eyes made her stop her growing complaint at half of its formation.

Eda was serious, deadly so.

So she stayed still, the water around her neck got warmer, and then cold, a little relief shoot through her wounds, and evolved into pleasure she couldn’t describe. Eda moved away and the water fell to the ground, Luz touched her neck, the pain was not there more.

“How did you do that?” Luz asked, surprised at how clear her voice came out.

“Water can heal,” Eda said, turning to the enemies who seemed to be recovering from the surprise from before, “I treated your injuries the first time, didn’t I?”

Luz tried to remember, but her mind couldn’t connect to that.

“You were asleep,” King told her.

“Oh…”

“Kid, you are stupid,” Eda said, making her stare.

Did she just…?

“You came into a military base, alone, to search for someone who you didn’t even know if it was here, and managed to get almost killed if it wasn’t for me, just how stupid is that?” Eda continued, laughing.

“You didn’t have to come back for me,” Luz growled, grinding her teeth, “you could’ve left while they were distracted by the explosion.”

Eda smiled at her.

“Oh, I used your little trick for myself pretty well, don’t worry,” she said, before looking at the soldiers, “and I’m not leaving without you.”

“Ah?”

“A person like you is more valuable to me alive,” Eda spun her staff in her hand, “so you need to stay alive until I find a good place to rest.”

“And you need to feed me!” King said, holding her by the remains of the cape, and letting it go immediately. “These clothes are horrible by the way.”

“Eda…” Luz tried to step ahead, but her legs gave in, and she was kneeling, “My mom…”

“Is not here, right?” she interrupted her, “I supposed it when I talked to those kids up there.”

“Kids…?”

Eda smirked, blocking an incoming wave of water, fire, and air with a spinning-air wall.

“You made quite the impression on them, see for yourself.”

Eda moved, blasting a powerful blow of air in the direction of the soldiers. Hooty took that chance to shield them and the ground under their feet started making a turn in its place, raising the ground under them,

Luz was greeted by a completely new image than the one before going underground.

The airships were burning in bright flames, all the soldiers trying to save them. The water benders fighting with the massive leak of fuel couldn’t do anything for the flames, air benders and fire benders desperately tried to control the moving hell, to no avail.

Luz then saw the three teens from before.

Fan was running, using the water around her to make attacks against the guard that come from multiple places. Eyeb was holding a tunnel for the other workers to escape while Cons kept making more leaks in the fuel line with a powerful movement of his feet, stones pierced the weaker metal in waves.

“Why… how…?” Was the only thing Luz managed to say.

Eda then looked at her, smiling softly. “You said yourself, they don’t need the avatar, they something different. They needed hope Luz, and you gave it to them.”

“…I did?”

“You sure did!” Hooty said that time, “you beat up a guard even when you are no bender and were hurt! Those kids being as good benders; couldn’t do that!”

“You showed them that the only thing they need is the will to fight,” Eda said, looking forward, “even if it’s selfish, even if it’s not a great mission… and that is something I couldn’t do,”

Luz couldn’t muster a response to that. She gaped, started to formulate a word, but stopped. A small giggle came out of her and she just looked down.

She inspired them… she made a difference even it was small.

“Wow…”

“Yeah, it’s pretty impressive…” Eda said. “Look, Luz… I’m not a hero, never been and never will be… but you, you have a spark that is just amazing, you just keep surprising me every time I see you.”

“Really? Because I think I just make you worry sick each time.”

“I do not worry!”

“Do too.”

“Do not.”

“Do too.”

“Do not.”

“Thanks, Eda.”

The woman stopped herself, staring for a sec before sighing. “Ok, I may worry a little.”

“I knew it.”

“Don’t push it.”

Eda helped her stand, holding her by the shoulder to avoid Luz falling to her knees again. She pointed down to the chaos.

“The first time I met you, you ran straight to your sword, ready to fight, you took your chances running for a taken camp, managed to knock out three trained benders, then you save our asses from getting eaten by a giant beast.”

“You were the one who killed…”

“But you knew it was coming. Kid, you know more of this world than me, and you keep making things I’ll never expect to see someone do except for…” Eda stopped, and giggle escaped her lips. “Except for the little old me, to be honest.”

Luz is felt a… strange—good strange, like a pleasant new feeling—wave of warm at those words, and her face felt hotter for a second. She felt something she hadn’t felt in years, she felt good, whole…

_Proud._

“Kid, I may not be a hero, but you sure are,” Eda lets her shoulder go, and Luz stayed up. “So I’ll make a deal with you.”

“A deal?”

She noticed that Eda also healed her hand’s wound. And her body felt… good, not dead weight anymore.

“You help me to find a place to stay in this world, and I’ll help you find your mom,” Eda smiled brightly. “I’ll put the transportation and a little help in your shenanigans, but you need to feed us, and guide us to good places to see.” Eda then moved her staff and they shoot into the sky.

Luz dived in the sensation it gave her when her feet get separated from the ground, and she laughed at the feeling it gave the fact of freefalling. Just like she felt the entire time since she met Eda, it was pure adrenaline, pure chaos…

Pure adventure.

Hoddie caught them in the moment they started to actually fall down to the battlefield.

“We’ll take care of each other,” Eda was holding a hand out for her, “so, what do you say?”

Luz took just the half of a second—maybe less—to take her hand and stand in Hooty’s saddle, looking at the woman in the eyes.

Smiling and hugging Eda Luz shouted. “You got yourself a guide!”

Eda laughed while they went away. Luz looked down and caught the image of prisoners running into the island, inside the forest. Feeling a little better when she managed to find Fan making signs to her from the water; Cons and Eyeb were with her in a little boat that was getting away from the isle.

“Where to then, _guide_?” Eda asked, making her look ahead.

Luz smiled, taking her map out.

.

.

.

The mayhem in the isle was an uncontrollable wave of destruction, people running from one spot to the other to try to manage the damage, uselessly. Amity was now helping alongside Boscha the spread of fire to more fuel when _they appeared_.

Amity moved to get Boscha and hid them both behind a small construction that still held itself up.

“What’s wrong Amity?” Boscha asked, “we should be working, or are you going to finally follow my advice and just bail? You always say that’s not something I should…”

She covered Boscha’s mouth and pointed to the newcomers.

Black robe and great armor shine in the sunset light. Amity shivered and there was a strange tension in the air around them. Amity felt like throwing up. One rebel thought—Amity supposed he was left behind—ran to them.

And he was a dead man.

The robed one held a hand up and the rebel stopped his race, screaming in shaking and broken voice.

“What… happened here?” The robed one asked the attacker.

Amity saw the man fight against… something, but she couldn’t see anything to fight. It was like the man just… suffered there, incapable of anything.

“If you won’t talk… then perish…”

The robed figure made a move and all the extremities of the rebel turned to the sides, included his neck, which broke.

The corpse fell to the ground lifeless and deformed.

“Now…” the figure said and Amity hid with Boscha, begging they didn’t catch a glimpse of them, “shall we… try again…?”

Boscha freed her mouth and looked at Amity. “Who are those guys? How did they do that?”

“They are the one people you don’t want to get mixed with!” Amity said back. “They are irregular benders that the Emperor holds in high esteem!”

Amity Looked over the protection the little hose gave her and face the robe figure giving her their back, she, instead, faced how the figure tortured some other base personal.

“Those are the special officers.” Amity moved back into hiding. “And they mean those people, that non-bender is done for.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, there we got a team!  
> So, not much to say, just, the next chapters are going to be building around bending and new introductions, I'll be posting on time, I promise. Unless something horrible happens, you'll have new chapters on Wednesday! Also, feel free to check my other story "Diary of a Lost Witch" if you are liking this one, the story is getting updated every Saturday and is equally substantial as this one.  
> Without further addu.  
> G_U out, peace~  
> Hasta pronto!


	6. The Swamp Within the Woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After escaping from the Emperor's Nation claws, the group is sent by the universe and now they need to understand if they are real heroes.
> 
> Disclaimer: Avatar franchise and The Owl House are not my personal property. This is fic is purely for entertainment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AO3 didn't let me post this morning, really glad it finally came through.  
> You are probably going to see or feel the writing in a different way, My nephew is visiting me and my beta reader definitely bailed on me, so yeah, I'm doing what I can. Anyway, please do read the last notes, I'm gonna try to do something new, and its kinda necessary for you to read.  
> Without anything else. Hope you enjoy it!

#  **Chapter 6: The swamp within the woods**

Luz yawned while getting up, happy to feel the ground under her feet.

They’ve been flying for too long in her opinion.

After successfully escaping from ‘Conformatorium’. They went full force to the south, in the direction of the place where Luz was expecting to help Eda understand better the situation of the world affairs... and also where she could get more information about her mother.

_Just hope we could go a little slower sometimes._ She thought, moving next to the nearest tree.

Hexside was just a few weeks away, a month if they really got delayed.

They were now camping in the woods of the main-lands. Luz was being overwhelmed with all the things she has only seen under-glass or in books. The different plants and animals had proven themselves a challenge. Even more with the eating machine that King was and the bad manners regarding food Eda had developed while being alone in a place where cooking seemed to be a luxury she didn’t have.

Luz smiled while getting apples from a tree and then she was running to a near river to gather water, enjoying the peace that came from the forest and sinking in the perfect harmony of nature…

“Luz, where are you?!!!” came a shout, and she sighed.

“So much peace I guess,” she said and got up.

Their camp w small campfire surrounded by a little wall of trees and earth Eda had put up. She found the woman drinking apple blood—bloody apple juice, weird name, she _knows_ —and King pouting next to her.

“You can’t bail out like that,” Eda said when she reached her and threw an apple to King, “this little fur-ball goes nuts.”

“I need to get breakfast, or would you like to do that?” Luz said back, letting things on the ground and placing her hands on her hips.

“I could!”

“Without getting us killed?”

Eda opened her mouth, closing it a second later.

“That’s what I thought,” Luz said, smirking, “I’ll have it ready in a sec, relax.”

Cooking for a group was better than cooking for one, at least for Luz. She found it a little difficult with King always trying to eat the ingredients before actually preparing them and Eda trying to ‘help’ and almost ruining them.

But it was fun, like being with her mom in a kind of twisted way.

She finished the fish they caught the day before and made soup, boiling it with spices. All was ready in minutes and she got a pretty cute King jumping to get his part.

“Give me, give me!” he said, taking his portion and drinking the first sip, “Ah, this burns!!!”

“You need to blow, dumb-spirit,” Eda said.

“Why are you so aggressive?” Luz asked, sitting, “you can get a lot more being nice.”

“Ha!! Eda being nice is the last thing this world will have,” King said, blowing his soup and taking a little sip.

Luz could swear he purred, he purred!!!

“I can be _nice,_ ” Eda said, glaring at the little figure, “I just choose not to be.”

“First food will fall from the heavens.”

Before Eda could make a response, a chart full of food crushed next to Luz; the three of them looked at the number of veggies and meat with wide eyes, then they looked up.

Nothing.

“See… I was called the King of the prophets for a reason,” King said, returning to his food.

“Where did this come from?” Luz asked, getting closer to the remains of the cart, “All seems new.”

“Jackpot!” Eda said, grabbing an onion a taking a huge bite, “oh yes, this is great.”

“And you just can’t have manners, can you?” Luz said, looking between the things.

She found a pair of glasses inside, alongside with a notebook.

“Hey, look at this,” she said, taking both and flashing them to the other two.

“A book? We can’t eat that, throw it.”

“It may belong to the owner of these.” Luz pointed out, opening it.

She saw neat handwriting and a lot of dates. She scrolled through it, there were notes about vegetables, most of them were in the chart, there were also little reminders, things like ‘don’t forget the seeding’, ‘don’t wander too much into the woods’.

But some notes made Luz stop reading the rest.

_Water bending techniques?_ She thought, looking at the different descriptions of poses, movements, and ways of controlling the liquid.

She also saw one more note.

“‘Don’t ever get out of the swamp’?”

“Swamp?” Eda repeated, getting next to her, “didn’t see one near.”

“Neither did I.”

“I saw one!” said another voice.

Both of the women jumped a little, turning to Hooty. The demon was there with his neck twisting in a long line like a serpent.

Eda hit him in the head. “Stop doing that!!”

“Ouch, you never let me have fun, geez, hoot,” Hooty responded, letting his neck go back to its normal length.

“You saw a swamp?” Luz asked, getting a portion of the soup and letting it in front of Hooty, “Where?”

“Oh, a few meters back,” the demon said, taking the first sip of his food, “it was well hidden by the woods.”

“Hidden _in_ the woods you mean, right?” said King.

“Nope Hood, _by_ the woods I mean,” Hooty finished his portion, “seconds please.”

“Go for the pot,” Eda ordered, crossing her arms.

“Yei Hooty-Hoot.”

Luz sighed before looking at Eda. “How would the woods hide a swamp?”

“I can think of a few ways,” she said massaging her eyes, “I just hope I’m wrong in some.”

“Who cares? We got free food! Let’s just fly away before someone comes for it!” King shouted, shrugging.

And they heard the branches breaking before they got to hear the scream. “There is it!!!”

Eda sighed getting her staff. “Too late for that.”

A group of people broke through the woods, stopping at the sight of them.

“Who are you?” asked one of the newcomers.

“We could ask the same,” Eda responded, “who are you?”

“We don’t have answers for muggers!”

“Wha…? We are not muggers!!!”

Luz watched the group carefully, she could see the water skins in their belts; she also recognized three teens in the five-person group, all men. She took a preventive movement and stepped closer, one of the teens opened his skin, looking at her.

“Eda,” Luz said.

Stopping her argument, Eda looked down at her. “What Kid?”

“They are water benders, all of them.”

The surprised faces of the group were enough confirmation.

“How does she know?” said one of the teens, shaking before his eyes shoot open, “They are spies!!!!”

“Spies?” asked both women.

“We can’t let spies go, trap them!!!”

“Great move kiddo,” Eda said.

Luz groaned, jumping aside. “Didn’t think they were hiding it!”

All five of them attacked with water from the skins on their belts.

Eda spun; rising a wall of earth, Luz used the cover and ran, jumping out of the protection she charged to the men, avoiding the attacks from the—clearly—inexperienced teens, she closed the distance with easy,

“Sorry,” she said before hitting one in the stomach with the sword guard, then kicking the other one to a nearby tree.

“Lyle!!” said one of the grown-ups. “You’ll pay for that!!!”

“I said I was sorry.” Jumping aside, Luz rolled on the ground. “Eda!!”

The woman turned in her direction. “On it.”

The ground moved on its own; Luz kneeled, avoiding a water whip to her face, then the ground threw her to the front, smashing her shoulder in the man’s chest and pushing him against a great tree.

Hitting him in the jaw and letting him out cold, Luz lowered her head. “Sorry, but you kinda attacked first.”

“Little bitch!!” said another man, covering her in water, Luz fought with it for a minute maybe; before the pressure immobilized her, covering her mouth.

“Surrender or the kid gets it,” one of the men said.

“Luz!!” Eda said, before glaring, “OK, enough of this!”

Eda spun and blew a powerful wave of air to the group, that knocked the remaining man who was prisoning Luz. But Eda didn’t stop there; she attacked with fire in the direction of the last water bender, who protected himself with a wall of liquid.

“Impossible…” he whispered, gaping.

“Not quite,” Eda smirked in his direction, bending the ground under the man and making a hole where he fell in, “don’t touch my guide.”

Luz was fighting to breathe and coughed a decent amount of water before she could even look at Eda.

Slowly standing, she smiled at the woman. “Thanks…”

“You may be a great fighter, but even with your crazy training, benders are still pretty difficult to match in a real battle,” Eda said holding her by the face, “sure you didn’t break anything?”

“I’m OK…you could teach me how to fight them, you are a jack of all trades.” Luz crossed her arms.

“Don’t know what that is,” Eda responded, walking to the pit and looking down, “And we have more concerning matters right now.”

“How can this be?!!” the man screamed from the bottom of the pit, “the Avatar is here?!!”

“You better bet I am, dumbass,” Eda crossed her arms, looking down at him, “now, care to explain your little outrage from before?”

The man stayed silent, and Luz got closer, looking at him. That seemed to affect him.

“Why is that child wielding a weapon?” he asked, and Luz saw the rage returning, “Why is the Avatar letting a child fighting?!”

Eda gasped. “Wow, stop there, I never told her to do anything!! She chose to fight, _by herself_ even before I met her.”

“That’s true, I’ve been wielding a sword since at least five years ago,” Luz added, smiling, “I got scars to prove it, wanna see? Not that I’ll show you.”

“What, why didn’t your father stopped you from this?!” he screamed.

Luz’s mood went all the way south, too fast. She greeted her teeth and looked away.

“Can’t really say, didn’t meet him.”

The man seemed maybe a bit too shocked by her response. “You… didn’t?”

“Enough of this.” Eda stepped in. “Now, you answer, who are you, and why in the world would you just attack a spy if there was one?”

“I…”

“Before you even think of lying or refusing to talk,” Eda said, stopping him, “remember, you are in a pit, and I have your little group unconscious over here.”

The man stared at her.

“Wasn’t supposed the Avatar to be a messenger of peace?”

“I live to disappoint, get used to it, now speak.”

“… I’m the leader of a scout group, my name is Mao,” he said, “and we can’t afford anyone knowing we are out here.”

“And why would that be?”

“Because the Emperor’s troops took control of our village a month ago.”

Luz gasped, and Eda flinched.

“Yahoza-Whoasa… That seems like a good reason to be on edge” Luz said.

“… I guess,” Eda conceded; sighing and rising the ground for Mao to come up, “but not more funny business you testosterone-infused dick.”

“I… understand those words separately,” Mao said, looking at her.

“Don’t try attacking us again,” Luz clarified, “now, I guess you are here for the food?”

Mao nodded and Luz pointed to the chart where a pretty happy Hooty and a frightened King stared at the group.

“What are those?” Mao asked, taking posture.

“Our companions, so chill,” Eda ordered, before looking at King, “not our food, fur-ball, get down there.”

“But it fell into our camp!” King pouted,

“Down, now.”

King groaned and got down, Luz closed the distance with the cart before looking back at Mao.

“Where is your camp?” Luz asked, “we can help you with transporting the food, your cart is really… not suit for the work right now.”

“We can’t let people go into the camp,” he responded, “and a child shouldn’t do this.”

Luz repressed a groan and place both hands on her hips. “Hey, hope you know it, but you have guys of my age range in your little group.”

“They are benders, and also men. A girl shouldn’t be fighting.”

“Excuse me?!!”

“Leave it, Luz,” Eda said, holding her by the shoulders, “this dick must be from a tribe, no use talking.”

“How would you know that?” Mao asked, frowning. “I haven’t told you…”

“Because only a tribe could make people so stupid that they would have such a denigrating way of thinking.” Eda glared at him, making him step back. “Even ten decades of difference won’t take the stupid dickhead way of thinking out of you, would it?”

“Let’s just get this to your camp,” Luz said, crossing her arms, “then we fly away from here.”

Pointing Mao with her staff, Eda added. “You don’t get to say no.”

Mao looked at them for a while before nodding to Eda. The woman returned the gesture and made Hooty charge with the things while she placed all the unconscious men on a rock plate.

“I left unconscious three of your men, and it was easy,” Luz said when she passed next to Mao.

She was happy to see him flinch.

They followed the water bender through the forest, Eda didn’t speak much and Luz kept mumbling to herself while reading the dairy she had found. The notes triggered Azura memories in her mind, and she wondered for a second how what had been of the bender.

She felt a little bad for leaving her in ‘Conformatorium’. But she remembered Azura didn’t want to escape in the first place.

“We are almost there,” Mao said, stopping, “we just need to wait the right time now.”

“And what time is that one?” Eda questioned him.

She didn’t receive a response from him, but from the trees.

The woods shifted and made cracking sounds, Luz stared, amazed at how the flora opened an underground path.

“I’m guessing this is the right time,” she said gaping, receiving humming from King and Eda in response.

“Let’s go,” Mao said, entering the path.

Eda and Luz exchanged a look before following; both of them preparing their weapons.

The path was wet and almost completely dark except for little natural lights that came from holes in the ceiling, Luz and Eda stepped over a rock just to fall in a little pond.

“Where does this thing ends?” Eda asked.

Luz smiled at her clenched jaw and shaking fists before turning her head to the front, stopping immediately.

“We are here, actually.” Luz gaped and looked at Mao; he was descending a staircase of roots.

There was a camp, build in wooden boats connected with rope bridges. Luz saw water benders cleaning the pond, taking away the plants and bugs, also how they moved fishes to nets. When the light hit her eyes, she turned upwards and faced the hole in the ceiling from where the sunlight got in, and most surely from where the cart of food got blast through.

Eda let out a whistle. “Is a neat camp.”

“Yeah… it is,” Luz said and images of her own camp flashed in front of her eyes.

King jumped up to Luz’s shoulder. “Meh, none of these places is worthy of my presence, they don’t have class.”

“It’s neat; they must have a lot of insects for me!” Hooty said, extending his neck.

Luz shook her head and left King on Hooty’s saddle before she got down to the bridge while Eda looked inside the saddlebags. She wandered between the houses. The plants and flowers were beautifully placed in the window frames and doors sides.

_Is cute…_ She thought passing a hand by the petals of a flower.

“Hey look, is the failure!!!”

“Guys, stop it!”

“What are you gonna do if we don’t?!”

Luz looked up, finding two teens who were mocking a girl, and by the looks of it; the girl was just trying to disappear becoming as little as she could. Closing her fist tight, Luz walked up to them.

“Hey!” Luz shouted, gaining their attention, “Leave, her, alone.”

Both teens stared at her for a few seconds, before exploding in laughter.

“And who do you think you are?” asked one of them.

“The one that is going to kick your nuts so hard that they are going to be on your neck” she responded, cracking her knuckles.

Both teens gave a step back, before smiling again.

“What can a _girl_ do?” 

Luz frowned at that and got closer to them, this time they didn’t even flinch.

Standing in front of them, Luz glared. “Say that again. I dare you.”

The boy smirked, getting closer to her. “What can a _girl_ do?”

News flash, the kid didn’t like the answer.

“I’ll tell my dad!!” the guy cried out, running away, a black eye and a few teeth less, the other one followed him holding his—not in the right direction twisted—wrist and a bloody nose.

“Dicks, or more like chumps,” Luz said, before looking at the girl on the ground.

She was pretty, really pretty and Luz noted her unfocused eyes, like looking at things was hard for her. She also saw her stained clothes and messy hair.

Luz got closer and offered her hand, trying to suppress her irritation. “You OK?”

“Y…Y-Yes,” the other said, smiling and taking it, Luz saw another flower falling from her pocket, “thank you for that…”

“No problem.” She kneeled, taking the flower and returning it. “Are you a gardener?”

The girl blushed, looking away, Luz smiled softly at her.

“No, no, no… I’m not it’s just… just…” She stopped, looking to the floor and then watching Luz with her head still down. “I… I like plants…”

“That is cool; you don’t need to be ashamed by it!!”

“… Thanks, it’s... you are really nice” She smiled at Luz. “What brings you here?”

“Me and my… companions?” Luz said, looking at Eda who was discussing something with King and Hooty, “What are they doing?”

“You are traveling with them? Wow.” Luz looked back at the girl. She had her eyes sparkling. “That’s so cool.”

Luz stared, her mind trying to process her actions and travels till that point, all the near-death experiences—just two… maybe three?—alongside taking care of King and Eda to avoid food poisoning.

“You could say that?” Luz offered in a shaking voice.

The girl then turned and took a basket full of different types of flowers. “Are you going to stay long?”

_How didn’t I see that?_ Luz thought, moving to stand next to her. “We are here just to deliver some stuff; we’ll be going in a few minutes.”

“Oh… Well… I guess you really don’ have any reason to say in a place like this, is pretty boring, isn’t it?”

“I would say that people are the actual problem, no offense.” Luz scoffed before shaking her head, “but this is amazing, how did you people find this place?”

“No taken, and, well…I… I was actually the one who recommended to… my dad” the girl said, moving to a bush and passing her hands through it, “I use to come here when our village wasn’t taken… it was a good hideaway… and now is a good camp.”

Luz smiled, getting next to the girl and passing her hand by the same bush.

“That is pretty cool.” They both start to walk.“… hey, why are all the men here so…?”

“Dick heads?” the girl finished.

“Yeah.”

“It’s just how they do things I guess…” The girl shrugged while saying that and stopped, looking at the wall of roots.

“Bad way.”

“Old way.”

“Dicks way.”

“Actually, that’s true,” she said, stopping and looking at her, “anyway, I gotta go, my dad will be back at any moment.”

“It’s OK, it was nice to meet you,” Luz said, turning and advancing towards… Eda using air bending to mess with King’s fur? _Really?_ She thought with a sigh.

The fact that the little spirit looked so cute didn’t reduce her exasperation.

“Eda will be so cool if she wasn’t the Avatar,” Luz muttered; reaching them. “What are you doing now?”

“Eda is messing with my perfect self!!” King said, pointing at her, “Luz, give me her portion of dinner tonight!”

“You wish, fur ball!!!” Eda moved; trying to catch the little creature.

“Guys…” Luz sighed.

“Willow!!!!” the scream made all of them shift, Luz reached for her bow, Eda prepared herself to attack and King hid in one of the saddlebags.

They saw how Mao held a dark green hair girl by the arm in front of a little crowd.

Luz glared. “Wow, mister charm is bad with girls here, too.”

“I don’t like him either kid, but you need to chill,” Eda said, patting her in the head, “you can’t let his opinion bother you, now let’s go, the sooner we left these things, the sooner we are out here.”

Luz slowly nodded and moved ahead tailing Eda.

_It does bother me._ She thought, reaching the heart of the commotion.

“Dad, it was the new benders fault!” the teen said, and Luz was finally able to recognize her.

The girl from before. She was struggling to free herself from the man’s grip.

“I told you to leave them when they were training!!” Mao said, pushing her down, “you should’ve been away!”

“They were in the middle of the street!!”

“Don’t talk back to me; it’s not your position!!”

“Talking about bad parenting,” Eda whispered to Luz.

“Not really surprise.” Luz crossed her arms.

If nothing happened she would need to be restrained.

“Who are the newcomers Mao?” asked an elder man.

Luz was impressed— _pissed,_ pissed beyond doubt—at the sight; the man was standing in the water and looking at Mao with a perfect calm look in his eyes, apparently not caring for the girl—Willow, her name was Willow, Luz noted—and yet, Mao let go of the girl’s arm and started to shiver at the man.

“They are the ones who found our lost cart of supplies,” he responded, his eyes on the ground.

“And why is your group unconscious?” the elder asked, walking and stepping in the wood of the bridge where they were standing.

“We…”

“Rushed into a fight with people they thought were weak,” Eda said, crossing her arms.

Luz was amused by how the air in the place changed so fast.

All the women stared gaping at them, while the men seemed a little surprised at the beginning; but their eyes started to glare at Eda before the surprise could sink in. Luz shifted in her place, her hand going to her sword and resting on top of it.

“Who do you think you are?” asked the elder, raising an eyebrow to Eda, “to speak like that after coming, uninvited, to our home?”

“I can talk like I want to.” Eda gave a step closer to the man. “And I’m here because you little _kids,_ threw your food to _our camp_ , and we are returning it.”

“Then thank you,” the man said, keeping eye contact with her.

“Eldest…” Mao tried to speak, but the man glared at him, closing his mouth.

Luz snickered. That got her the attention of the man.

“Why is the kid charging weapons?”

“Again?” Eda groaned, shaking her head with closed eyes, “this is a world-wide invasion, everyone should be able to defend themselves.”

Luz smiled, matching her eyes with the teens of the place. All of the guys were looking at her in disbelief. She caught a few snickering and glared at them.

“You can’t expect a girl to be able to fight!” said one man, stepping in.

“Excuse me?” Luz reacted, going to face him.

Eda held her by the arm. Luz looked back at the woman, but Eda’s stern look stopped her protests.

“Let go of the sword,” Eda said… more like ordered her.

Luz stared, before taking a deep breath. Her grip on the weapon weakening; she looked at the man with a deep frown.

“This kid can defend herself perfectly,” Eda said, pulling her closer, “now, your things are here, Hooty!”

“Yes, Hoot, you don’t have to scream… Hoot,” the demon said, letting the good on the bridge.

“Here; the rest of your exploratory group,” Eda moved, and the piece of earth where they were, threw them to the bridge.

All the people in the camp stared at the unconscious bodies with gaping mouths.

“You beat all of them?” asked the elder, his eyes shining weirdly.

“The kid got three, I got two, that Mao guy knows it,” Eda responded turning and starting to walk.

“No need to lie,” said a teen from the crowd, “the elite forces couldn’t be defeated by a girl, so, is obvious it was all you, earth bender.”

Luz stopped and looked at the teen. She could tell two things, the boy didn’t bathe much even for a water bending camp, and two, he was a dick.

Luz glared at him. “They weren’t really that hard to beat.”

“Ha, as if. You couldn’t even beg for your life if they went against you.”

“Luz, let it…” Eda tried to say.

But it was too late for that.

“Now hear me you, douch,” Luz said, walking up to him, “I can take any of you, any day. And it’ll be _easy_.”

There were multiple gasps from the women around and Luz didn’t need to see the surprise on them, she knew it was there. The little glim of fear in the boy’s eyes banished under the pride, he then smiled.

“Prove it.”

Luz jumped back when a wave of water came her way; she looked behind the boy and found an adult man staring in astonishment at her.

“Bring, it, on,” Luz said, taking out her sword.

She waited, letting them do the first move. They attacked her by the sides; jumping ahead she started to run towards the boy. He gasped before throwing a whip of water at her; Luz avoided it by sliding on the ground and hit him on the legs.

She didn’t wait for a second, using the sword guard to hit the boy under the stomach.

When the teen fell to his knees Luz, tackled him while getting up and used him as a shield from the adult man, she then pushed the boy to the man, who coughs him.

“Kole!!”

Luz closed the gap again, glaring at the now terrified man. “Don’t get distracted.”

She swung her sword and stopped just at the moment the blade touched the man’s neck, a single drop of blood ran through the edge. Luz was looking at the man dead in the eyes, before looking down; the man did the same and was greeted by one of her arrows about to stab the ‘Kole’s’ neck.

The silence that followed was as dense as a winter fog, only broken by the sound of Eda’s uncontrollable laugher.

“Kid, I should’ve tried to stop you more, but I’m glad I didn’t,” Eda said, getting next to her and getting Luz off of their necks.

Too literally.

Eda looked around the crowd, smirking. “Now you see; this kid has more in her than most of you!!” She then looked at the elder, “you should improve your education.”

She didn’t wait for more and took her to Hooty’s saddle.

“We are going kiddo,” Eda said, “You already proved your point.”

Luz scoffed but nodded while getting in the saddle.

“Wait” both of them heard.

Luz looked at the elder, who was holding his hand out to Eda.

“Where do you come from?”

“What is this, why do you care?” Eda asked in response.

The man seemed like he is bothered by her answer, but apparently to bit back his words—in Luz's eyes at least—and sighed, before looking at her.

“Could you tell us why you are here?” he asked again.

Luz crossed her arms at the sudden change of attitude. Eda looked at her, shrugging.

“We are just passing by, we are in the middle of a journey,” Eda responded, guiding Hooty to the entry they came from.

“Where to?”

“Hexaide,” Luz said instead of Eda.

“Hexaide?!!”

The shout stopped them. Eda looked at Luz with curiosity. She was as surprised as her.

The one who screamed was a girl… _the girl._

Luz made out the shape of the person nearing them, the girl was the one Mao was screaming at before, the one with the flowers, too.

_Willow._ Luz thought, getting down the saddle.

“You are going to Hexaide?” Willow closed the distance, almost tripping with her own feet. “sorry…”

“Willow, come back here!!” Mao said, grabbing her by the wrist, “haven’t you done enough?”

“I didn’t do anything…” she whispered.

But Luz caught it and her blood boiled. She got between them, separating Mao and Willow.

“You need to relax,” she said, turning at the girl. “Hey, you OK?”

She was rubbing her face. Luz smiled softly when their eyes meet. “Yeah, is just a little blurry.”

“You sure? I thought your eyes were hurt before… but that’s not it, right?”

“Yeah… I just lost my glasses a while back,” she said, looking down. “Before I didn’t really need them…”

“Glasses?” Luz repeated.

And her eyes went wide. “Oh!! wait!”

She looks in her bag on Hooty’s saddle, before getting back to Willows's side, the book, and glasses from the cart in her hands.

“Are these yours?” she asked, handing them to her.

Willow stared before smiling and getting the glasses to her face. “Yeah! Thank you, I couldn’t see… well. Anyway, where did you find them?”

“They were on the cart,” Luz said, putting her hands behind her back.

“They were?” Willow blinked a few times before sighing, he hand going to her chest, “of course they were…”

Luz smiled faded and she took Willow’s hand, getting her further away from Mao.

Luz got closer to Willow. “What do you mean by that?”

The girl looked at her eyes and shook her head. She then got the notebook to her chest and hugged it.

At least it seemed like she had calmed down.

“Is nothing…” Willow said, “you said you are going to Hexside, right?”

“Yeah… It’s our destination.”

“That’s so cool, are you going to join the resistance?”

Luz bit back her response, her mind rushing around that idea.

She wasn’t going to do that.

Luz had chosen Hexside as their destination to help Eda comprehend the situation of the world without being in a life or death situation, also the fact that their recon squats could know where her mom may be imprisoned.

“We have our reasons,” Luz said, looking away.

“Well, they must be good, I mean, with you trying to cross the siege and all…”

“Siege? What siege?”

“… The one that’s been impeding Hexside supplies rout from the last two months” Willows said, fixing her glasses back to their place, “they have a block from ‘Broken neck valley’ to Hexside… didn’t you know?”

Luz hit her forehead and groaned; Eda behind them hit her own forehead to Hooty’s side. King screamed in desperation while moving his paws in all directions from the saddlebag.

“How come you didn’t know about a block?!” Kings asked.

Luz turned to look at him. “How did you expect me to know, the maps I have are from months ago!!”

“Am I going to have to fly a lot more?” Hooty said turning his head upside down.

“Now what?” Eda groaned, running a hand through her hair.

“Em…”

The four of them looked at Willow, the girl flinched a little before going through her book and ripping a page, handing it out to Luz.

“This… could help you get there,” she said, smiling a little.

Luz stared and taking the page she gasped.

It was a map.

“What…?” Luz looked at Willow, but the girl was already running back to the people of her village. “Willow?!”

“Good luck!!” the girl scrammed, looking back for a second before disappearing in the multitude.

“Wait!!” she tried to go after her, but Eda stopped her holding her by the arm, “Eda…?”

“We have to go,” the woman said; her eyes fixed in something ahead.

Luz looked in direction of Eda’s stare, finding the hard looks from the men on the tribe. She gripped her teeth with irritation.

“Let’s go now Kiddo…” Eda ordered, pushing her away from the people and back into the tunnel.

They were back on the surface in no time at all.

“I can’t believe those guys!!!” Luz screamed when they are out of those mystic trees, “what’s with that stupid ‘girls’ thing?!”

“They are from the water bending communities,” Eda said, face also fixed on a frown.

Luz stopped her rambling and looked at her. “Water bending communities?”

“The north one most surely, they believe that women are only good for house chores” she explained, getting on Hooty and helping the teen up. “A bunch of dicks.”

“I can see that” Luz muttered. Her mind wandering back to Willow’s cute smile, “though there seems to be a good person there.”

“That kid you mean?” King said climbing her shoulder, “she was nice to give you an actual map.”

“Yeah…”

Luz looked at the maps, there was a route that went through the multiple villages that are fighting the advances of the emperor's nation, also a way to get to the ‘Cave of the two lovers’ and from there is a straight route to Hexside.

“That kid is in such a bad place for her to grow,” Eda said, gaining her attention.

“What are you talking about?”

Hooty took off in those moments and Eda took a deep breath before answering her.

“She is a water bender.”

“… You knew?” Luz moved closer to her, a smirk on her face, “how?”

“Her clothes, only a water bender would have their clothes wet in the first place, also she isn’t a… how did those kids call her? Fatty?”

“They called her that?!”

“Yeah, the kid you beat up, I’m surprised you didn’t know.”

“Now I’m just regretting not hitting him harder…”

“You could’ve killed him if you did, anyway, the kid is not even close to that, she has a lot of well-built muscles in there, wouldn’t fight her in a fistfight,” Eda said with a smile. “How did _you_ know?”

“She has a lot of training positions and notes for it in her notebook…” Luz stopped and her eyes went wide open. “Oh my spirits, oh my spirits! It was her dairy!!!” She stood up and started pacing, “I read her diary, how could I do that?!!”

“You didn’t know and it wasn’t really that interesting if you found training notes,” King commented, cuddling in himself, “I’m taking a nap.”

“How could I, little ol’ Luz read someone else’s diary!!!” she said falling on her back in the saddle.

“You need to chill, kid,” Eda said with a sigh, “We lost a lot of time in there, better get going…”

Luz didn’t say anything and stares at the sky, the sun had already passed its highest point. Her mind went back to Willow and Mao. She tried to forget the thing she just saw and concentrate on their route right now.

And it was when the smoke reached her.

She sat immediately, looking up and back, then to the sides and then to the front.

Nothing.

“Eda…”

“I smell it too kid.” Eda frowned and pointed down.

Luz looked, and her breathing got stuck in her throat.

Tanks and cars were moving, fire and earth benders getting rid of the forest as they pass. All her senses tensed as she can saw the airships resting in the back of great trucks.

Eda shook a little. “They are going full force against them…”

“I don’t think they know the camp is there” Luz replayed, taking out Willows map.

She pointed a place, showing it to Eda.

“Here, they are going to raid these towns, the camp could’ve been safe if they took the existent path…”

“But they are making a new one,” King said, butting in.

“Weren’t you going to sleep?” asked Eda with irritation.

“I can’t with you two making this much noise!”

“We don’t have time for this,” Luz said, “we need to warn them.”

That got groans from the other three.

“Do we have to? I don’t want to go back there Hoot-hoot” Hooty said getting higher.

“They were jerks to you and Eda,” King pointed out, crossing his paws.

Eda played with her staff. “They can handle this…”

“Really?” Luz said, standing up, “guys we can’t let them die!”

“Why do you want to help them so much?” Eda questioned her while moving to her bag in the saddle, taking out a flask and downing it in three seconds, “you don’t even know these people.”

Luz closed her eyes. Thinking about the reason why she wanted this so bad; a single reason to explain Why? Why would she want to save such an awful lot of people?

And she thought about Willow, well, her dairy to be precise.

“Down there is a girl who is like me,” she said, holding the page in which Willow shared her map with them. “Someone that doesn’t have where to go if she loses that place… I don’t want her to face the same I’m facing.”

Luz closed her hands tighter around the piece of paper before looking at Eda directly in the eyes. The woman held her gaze. Luz sensed something changing in the woman pupils. Eda sighed and massaged between her eyes.

“I did say I’ll follow your shenanigans,” Eda said, making Luz smile bigger. “But if things go south… well, a lot more shout than we expect, we bail, got it?”

Luz jumped to Eda, trapping her in a hug. “You got it!”

“Ew, why do you do this?!” Eda pushed her away and looked ahead. “Now, let’s just go save those asses.”

Luz laughed before taking her bow and a few arrows from her quiver.

“Couldn’t have said better.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Willow in danger? The Emperor's nation is destroying the forests?! Luz and Eda are really heroes?!  
> A lot of questions for next week. Thanks for reading so far people, and I'll be trying to fix the chapters to the best of my ability. Now, the new thing. Is easy actually.  
> It's a voting!  
> You people comment with the character that is your favorite so far, and next week on the beginning notes I'll be leaving a bit of backstory that otherwise won't be part of the actual story, so yeah, more like curious things you probably guess.  
> It's going to fluke, but I wanted to try.  
> Nothing else, to say, so see ye next time! G_U out peace!  
> Hasta Pronto!


	7. The Advanced Bending of The Girl From the Forest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now with the emperor's nation attacking, Luz, Eda and King must do what they can to save Willow... and her village, too.  
> Please be careful, graphic description of injuries and Violence ahead, read under your own risk!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something horrible happened in my life so this got delayed.  
> Now, What it's important about the story. You are going to notice that the times on the story became irregular, yeah... I already have all this written but since I can't really edit it right now, I'll post and correct later, the story in itself won't change, just the time is written in.  
> This time we'll have more action than anything, and since Willow had two votes on the thing from last time, I'll have you know this!
> 
> Willow hates cactus. She really does, since her Village (before all) had a merchant that brought one when she was a little gal and she got hurt by it. This would ever be relevant on the story, but now you know.
> 
> I'll read ya at the end, have a nice read!  
> Disclaimer: The owl House and The Avatar franchise don't belong to me but to their respective creators, this is a work made merely to entretain.

The rising fire was eating the woods as the soldiers push their way inside the forest, Luz grimaces while Eda tries to find the way to the swamp.

“Why won’t these things work with us for a change?!” she screams hitting a tree, “these people are about to die, you know?!”

“I think she lost it,” King says, standing next to Luz.

“She has a reason, we are in the middle of a possible crash between incredible forces,” Luz says, flinching when a crash echoes from not so far, “we need to get in there…”

“These stupid things won’t budge!!!” Eda says to the sky, the air around her blasting in all directions.

“You humans really need to improve your skills,” King says shaking his head.

“So do you have a better plan?!!”

“Actually, I do,” King said and started walking next to Hooty and making the demon get down with a little pad.

“Yes, Hood?”

“You said the woods were hiding the place, right?”

“Yes.”

“So you know where is hidden?”

“Of course,” Hooty says, his feathers ruffing in his body, “the trees don’t bend like that.”

“Take us there then, you beast,” King says, jumping on Hootys neck.

“Ok, Hooty-hood”

The demon moves past Eda and went deeper into the forest. The older woman looks at Luz, sighing, and jumping in her place when another section of the forest went down.

“We are not going to make them react fast enough,” Eda says, gripping her staff.

“We gotta try.” Luz takes her bow and arrows, “better to move…”

“You do it,” Eda says, looking at the sky, “I’ll buy a few minutes.”

Luz looks at the woman. She smiles at her before pointing up.

Dark clouds are starting to gather.

“Those guys are water benders, so they’ll have better chances to escape if it rains,” Eda says, waling and getting next to Luz, “I can also use this, you go and get that kid out of trouble.”

“… We are trying to save the camp,” Luz says smiling.

“If you believe that, now go.”

“Take care, Eda.”

The woman makes a sound that seems like half a laugh and shoots up, her staff changing to its other form. Luz watches her disappear over the tree line and turn, starting to run after the spirit and the demon.

She follows Hooty through a pretty rough path; she jumps over a few roots, dives under wide branches, and almost falls in holes between trees.

“Where are you taking me Hooty?!” Luz shouts, reaching them.

“Here, Hood!” the demon says, stopping. “Her is the entrance!”

“…Hooty, is a wall,” King says.

Luz is about to scream, because she is in front of a stone wall, roots cover some parts of it, but is pure rock.

“You made come here for nothing?!” Luz says, getting in front of him, “Hooty, there is an invasive force coming here!!!”

“You think I don’t know? How rude, Hood,” Hooty says walking to a root and biting it.

“Is no time to eat you dumb beast!!” King screams.

But Hooty doesn’t munch, but pulls, tearing the root apart and exposing a tunnel.

“Wow…” Luz says, getting closer.

The rock is pierced, vine making the tunnel stable and she can see it’s pretty long. She looks at King, and the spirit seems – even with a face made of bone – as surprised as her.

“I told you it this way,” Hooty says, sitting and getting King down him, “now go do what you have, I’ll be here, making insects mush, yummy… Hoot-hoot!”

Luz stares at the demon before looking at King, the spirit, is already advancing.

“Why does it have to be an underground passage? I don’t like these…” she whispers.

They walk for two minutes or so when they reach an ending to the tunnel. Luz finds herself atop a little hill of vines and stone, she sees down and catches a little pond of pure water inside a ring of flowers.

And there is Willow.

Luz catches her practicing water bending, the sweet movements of the waves in the pond, Luz stops all her movements and stares at the art she’s been looking at for so long.

Azura water bending was always majestic and powerful; a single motion with a powerful meaning… but Willow bending was different.

It’s… gentle, and almost like… like a helping dance. The scene so harmonic and beautiful like all the place was in resonance with Willow herself.

“This is different from Eda.” Luz reacts at King’s comment, “when Eda plays with water it’s a lot faster and less… calm.”

“All bending is different, just like a person I guess, even if the bases are the same,” Luz says, moving along the edge of the cliff, “come one when have to warn her.”

“I’ll wait here.” he said sitting and waving at her, “this place is still not my kind of place.”

Luz sighs and keeps looking, for a way down, finding a staircase of roots to get down, she smiles when she reaches the water. She moves directly to the ring of flowers, stopping at the edge of it, Willow is not facing her, Luz looks directly at her, the end of that moment from before.

“Willow,” she whispers, but the girl doesn’t budge, too concentrated in her work, “Willow!”

She tries four times before groaning and taking out her bow and an arrow, she aims for the loose part of the wall next to the girl and shoots.

Of course she doesn’t’ count with Willow raising her arm and the arrow piercing her sleeve, pinning her to the wall of roots that seems to hide her little garden.

“What?!!” the girl says, looking in all directions.

“Sorry!” Luz said raising both hands, and Willow finally spots her, she makes a signal for silence before the glasses girl can shout anything else, “Willow, sorry, but it’s an emergency.”

“An emergency?” the other says, taking the arrow and - with a little struggle – freeing herself. “What happened?”

Luz moves closer to her, making a gesture for Willow to do so too. When the other teen is in front of her, Luz looks around.

“The emperor’s nation is coming here” Luz says holding Willow’s hands, “you need to get out of here, all of you.”

“What? Luz, that’s not possible.” Shaking her head and freeing herself, Willow turns around. “They have a route to their next camp going around this part…”

“They are leveling the woods!” Luz says; holding her by the shoulders this time.

The girl opens her eyes and starts to shiver, getting away from Luz.

“That can’t be true… it would be unnecessary for them…”

“But it’s happening,” Luz says, looking down and closing her eyes with strength before looking at Willow, “you need to get out of here before something horrible happens… you need to get everyone out of here Willow.”

“But…”

“Eda and I will buy you some time.” Luz jumps a little, hearing an explosion resonates in the distance, “think she already is.”

The girl looks into her eyes, both keeping the connection until an echo of another explosion gets to them from afar. Willow’s expression becomes terrified and she covers her mouth with her hands.

“I… I got to tell my dad,” she says, turning and starting to run back to the camp.

Luz watches her, before moving back to the roots that make the wall, climbing them back to the tunnel where King is waiting for her.

“You did it?” the spirit asks when she is in.

“Hope so,” she says, shaking her head and looking at King, “now let’s go help Eda.”

Luz takes King, and starts to run. Hooty is on the other side of the path.

“Luz, wait it’s a…!!” the demon says, before a huge tree crashes on top of him.

“Hooty!!!” King and Luz screamed.

Luz exits the tunnel just to be hit by a water wave, the impact pushes her against a tree and she fell the liquid hold her. She opens her eyes to find the teen she beat before and the adult, both of them have smirks on their faces.

“Told you it was them,” says the teen, looking at the older man.

“Don’t lose your concentration Kole,” the man says, walking closer to her, “What are you doing here outsiders?”

“We… we were trying to… warn you…” she manages to say.

“Warn, or ambush?!!!” Kole says, and the water tightens around her. “you women are no good for honor!”

“Excuse you!” King says; jumping in the older man’s head and making him lose concentration.

The water losses around Luz just enough for her to push the front, getting out of the liquid. She kneels on the ground.

“Luz, watch out!!!” King says before he is thrown to another tree.

She rolls over her back, avoiding by just a little the water torrent. She fixates her eyes on the two men, taking in as much air as she can.

_Bring it, on._ She thinks of standing and running.

She tackles Kole, and uses the momentum to gains distance, taking her bow and a few arrows.

She starts shooting; the man makes a wall of water, blocking her attacks. Luz takes new ones. Firing while running, she closes the gap little by little, the man seems to notice her plans, and makes a powerful wake of water that hits her feet, she lets go of the bow and rolls to the front, jumping ahead she tackles the man in the stomach and draws her sword.

“Sorry, but there’s no time for this!” she says, hitting him with the guard of the sword, knocking him.

Luz looks at the two guys. Kole is holding his stomach with tears in his eyes, the adult is now unconscious in the ground.

“These people need to chill,” Luz says, before she remembers, “King!!!”

She runs to the spirit, letting the sword on the ground and kneeling, she holds the little body.

“King? Talk to me!” she begs.

“Don’t be so loud…” he says, opening an eye, “you can’t let me sleep?”

Luz can feel the tears rolling down, her eyes are burning alright. “I was so worried!!” she says, hugging him, “who is my wiggle guy? Who is my wiggle guy? Who is my wiggle guy?”

“I don’t know who your wiggle guy is Luz!!!” he says fidgeting in her arms, “let go of me you monster!”

“I’m so glad you are OK.” she then softly says, and King stops to fight.

“…Thanks,” he says, “now, let go of me!!”

Luz does it, and looks at the struggling Kole.

“Wow, how are you even a fighter?” she asks, trying not to laugh, “I mean, I didn’t even hit you that hard.”

“No… Not that hard?!” he says, clutching his middle body. “You gorilla, horrible…”

“You don’t talk much with girls.” Luz snickers; holding her sword to his neck, “now, what are you doing out here?”

He groans, moving his hands. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

Luz kicks him on the guts and pointing her sword next to his neck, this time letting the blade pierce a little his skin, this makes the trick, and his eyes snap open and his body stops moving.

“I’ll ask again,” she says, “why are you here?”

Kole doesn’t respond, but he does look to one side. Luz follows his eyes, and finds a little hole in the near tree.

“King, please look at that,” Luz says to the spirit.

“I don’t have to do it, but I’ll do it because I want to,” he says back, walking up to the tree.

“Anything?”

“Luz, this is incredible!!!” King shouts, “This thing is hollow, and it’s also filled with this!!” he says, flashing pieces of meat and vegetables to Luz, “They are hiding food!!”

“You were hiding food?” she asks, and facepalms “you a robbing your own people.”

“I’m not robbing, I deserve this!!”

Luz grimaces and sighs.

“Any person that says that doesn’t,” she says before knocking him out, “King, we gotta move.”

“But there is so much food in here!!” he says, charging with meat and carrots, “we can’t leave it, they’ll just move it!!”

Luz shakes her head, getting closer. “We are about to fight an army, or a part of it, we can’t move with food.”

“Hooty is still under the tree, he can charge it!!”

Luz is surprised by King’s memory span, considering all the time they have expended together – not much but enough – she never thought he could keep the track like that. She sighs and looks at where the demon is.

“Hooty, are you OK?” she asks, getting next to the creature.

He whines “Yes Hood…” he says moving a little, the tree doesn’t budge, “but I’m stuck Hooty-hood.”

“Figures…” Luz says, sheathing her sword, “King help me out.”

“But why?” the spirit says getting closer.

“Because, _you_ want that food.” Luz pushed him next to the tree, “now push.”

Before they can though, Luz feels the air crashing behind her and hears a shout.

“Luz, we need to get out of here!!!” She turns, facing Eda, the woman has a block or rock immobilizing her left shoulder and is soaked, “where is Hooty?”

Luz tenses and looks to the tree, next to King, and then back to Eda. The woman follows her eyes and gapes. Frowning to her and letting out a raging scream, the stone in her body cracking and the water becoming steam.

“What, did, you, do to Hooty?!!” she says, getting next to her, and kneeling next to the demon, “you OK, stupid beast?”

“Yeah, just a little… Auch, Hood, stuck… Hooty-Hood,” he says, looking at Eda, “My wing…”

“Now we are trapped.” Eda says, using earth bending to throw the tree away, “fabulous, just fabulous Kid…”

“I wasn’t Luz fault!!” King says, “those two ambushed us!”

Eda looks at Kole and the other man, sighing before looking back to Hooty and then to the horizon, the smoke and noise are closer than before. She shakes her head and uses earth again, this time she makes a cart for Hooty and lets the demon a top of it, she turns at Luz.

“We can’t run away now,” Eda says, before walking up to Luz and hitting her with her finger on the forehead, “so now, we have to fight for peace, justice and… all that crap,” she says.

Luz smiles, before groaning and looking at the unconscious men.

“I really don’t like the idea of fighting for this kind of people…” she says, looking at Eda, “do you have any rope?”

“Rope?”

“They were stealing from the camp supplies; they could bail them in any second for all we know.”

Eda stares and giggles while passing her one long rope from the saddle.

“You’ll never stop amazing me, would ya?”

With the two traitors restrained and thrown in the secret tunnel, Luz and Eda move Hooty.

“Was that path there before?” King asks, and Eda and Luz look at where the spirit is pointing.

The trees had moved out of the way, their branches and leafs making a natural dome, hiding the secret route under the foliage.

“No, no it wasn’t,” Eda says.

“Yowza-waoza.” Luz whispers, an explosion echoes behind her, and she locks eyes with Eda, “better go anyway…”

“Yeah.”

They advance fast in the path, the roots almost like moving out of their way. Eda stops when they reach a dead end with an immense tree and a block of roots covering the ground.

“Really? These freaking woods were guiding us to, a, death, end!!” Eda said and her air bending went wild, smashing a tree. “What are we supposed to do now?”

Eda groans, looking at Luz. But the teen is watching the block of roots carefully,

“What’s it kiddo?” Eda asks holding her.

“There is something… weird here,” she says, moving closer to the roots, “I saw the plants before, with Willow” Luz then touches a root, “they were weird, not like anything I’ve ever seen…”

“You haven’t seen much if we are being honest” King comments, crossing his front paws, Luz ignore him.

“The plants almost seemed…” She reaches one; and this reacts, retreating and opening a small hole to look in, “alive…”

“The woods here are alive?” King says, getting next to her and looking inside the hole, “hey, this is that camp.”

“I really didn’t want to believe it…” Eda says, and Luz looks at her.

“What is it?”

Eda shakes her head, before touching other roots; the result is the same as before.

“We don’t have time now,” she says, looking inside the roots.

Luz stares, before doing the same.

Inside she can see people gathering in the plaza, she can’t make out much, but there is something that captures her attention. The water moves wildly around the group she can then see the elder from before and Mao. Both of them are facing a third person.

“Is that the kid from before?” Eda says, and Luz feels her heartbeat drop.

“Willow,” she says letting out a gasp. “We need to help her!”

“Don’t think we have the time…”

Eda’s words become truth the very next second, the east wall of the camp blows up, the water is moved and the fire gets inside, and shouts don’t take long before starting.

“They got to the camp? I thought they weren’t aware it was here!!” Luz screams, looking at Eda.

“They must have seen something around and attacked!” the woman responds, before turning around, “whatever it was, they are there now, we have to go!”

“What?! We can’t abandon them!!”

“We won’t win against them Kid!” Eda replies, “we had a deal, if things went south we scram from here!!”

“But Hooty is hurt!” Luz intercepts, pointing at the demon, “we can’t run fast enough Eda, they are going to catch us if we don’t do anything to stop them.”

“We are no match for this group!”

“We don’t have to face them alone!” Luz points now to the camp that is under attack, “we just need to help them down there!!”

Eda glares at her. “They don’t want our help; they probably try to use us as bait!!”

“And what are you trying to do now is better?!” Luz says; standing and turning her back on Eda, “I’m going down there.”

“What do you think you’ll be able to do?” Eda says, and the wind around them gets stronger. “Luz, you almost died before when you tried something like this… and if you don’t have luck this time?”

Luz stops and takes a deep breath, shaking, her mind flashing the memories in her body. Turning again she locks her sight on Eda’s and keeps it for a few seconds; none of them budge to this.

“I don’t know, but I’m not running, though you knew that,” Luz says, and runs off the same path they came before.

Her feet take her to the same place where Kole and the other man were tied up, still unconscious. She sighs in disbelief before entering the tunnel from before. Getting to the little low-key stairs she used to talk to Willow, she jumps to the water again.

It’s hot, too hot.

“I need to move…” she says, getting to one of the bridges and pulling up, standing, and preparing her bow, she starts her race to the center of the fight.

She stops in her tracks and her body freezes to the image in front of her.

Soldiers of the emperor are taking the kids and women to the ground. Earth benders had made spikes grow through houses destroying them, there is fire everywhere, eating the wooden constructions, the water from the swamp kept away by the benders fighting in the swamp itself.

“No…” Luz says.

Her throat sore and the pressure getting stronger in her chest, she closes her eyes, fighting the oppressive feeling and fixating her gaze on the front. A group of soldiers is going after a mother and her kids.

“No.” Luz repeats, the pressure becoming a warm rage.

She runs, shooting while jumping up the burning waste. Her arrow gets to the legs of the soldiers, she lands in the center of the four, hitting them as fast as she can. Luz turns, the kids and the woman are gone.

But the unconscious soldiers are not the only ones near her.

“Who are you?!!” says one of them.

“They ask that question too much man,” Luz says, preparing a new arrow, “bring it.”

She runs into the remains of houses, small spaces where she can avoid less but she fires faster than her persecutors. The arrows hitting shoulders and knees, she smirks and rolled down a blazing arc of wood, she faces the plaza full of people, soldiers turn to look at her, attacking, Luz jumps behind a spike.

“Ok… maybe this is a bit too much for just little old me” she mutters, before looking out.

Just to hide again when a fireball is about to hit her.

She groans, looking around. “What do I do now?!”

“Surrender to the Emperor and their will!!” says one of the soldiers, and Luz can feel the spike of earth shifting.

She moves away in time to avoid a vicious hit to the head.

“Not that, at least I know,” she says, and fires an arrow at one of the benders.

It gets burned away and Luz tenses, looking at the attacker, she is received by an older person in armor.

“Who might you be?” asks the person.

“wouldn’t you want to know…” Luz says, firing again, the result is the same as before.

“Fair enough,” the person says, “You’ll be in a common pit anyway.”

A wave of fire is on her way the next second and Luz rolls to the side, avoiding it, she runs ahead, but before she can get closer a stone hits her on the side, pushing her away, she then feels a cut – a _deep_ one – in her leg, she falls to the ground, the ice shard stuck in the wood behind her.

“You are something remarkable…” the person says, getting closer, “you seem to be familiar with fighting benders.”

“I have my tricks…” she says, trying to stand.

A wave of fire hits her in the good leg, knocking her to the ground, her chin hitting first.

“Certainly, but anyhow, a non-bender can’t do much against the ones that control nature,” they say, Luz can’t focus on them, everything was blurry and her mind was slipping away in her fingers. “You are just scum…”

Luz grits her teeth at that. She looks up, glaring at the soldier, the generic mask mocking her. The person steps on her back.

“Your fighting spirit is great, it’s so sad you are no more than an insect… well, farewell…”

“Leave her alone!!” someone screams.

Luz can see a blur passing next to her, the pressure in her back is released and she can feel a hand holding her.

“Luz, are you OK?”

She raises her head, and a pair of green eyes lock with hers.

“Willow?” she says.

“For the love of… Luz,” Willow says, looking at her wounds, “you are bleeding…”

“What are you doing…?” Luz manages to say, “I thought you were gone… I told you to go…”

“I couldn’t leave, not when I saw you fighting,” she says, getting Luz’s hair out of her face, “my dad didn’t believe me…”

“Figures…” Luz starts to stand slowly, her cut leg giving in immediately, Willow catches her. “You need to go…”

“I don’t find people ignoring me funny!” says the armored person.

“Willow, run!!” Luz pushes her and gets out of the fires’ way.

“Luz!!”

She pushes herself to a side, Luz manages to raise her Bow and fire an arrow, this time the person doesn’t burn it, but avoids it and attacks Luz, she rolls, hitting the remaining of a house.

_Come on…_ She thinks, looking in front of her.

“The brave ones, always so… annoying,” the person says, fire ignites in their hands, “farewell.”

“Luz!!!” Willow screams.

And the bridge breaks down them.

Luz is thrown to the water, her body smashing against the surface; she loses the air in her lungs. And can’t move, sinking like a rock, her mind works trying to get her arms and legs to work with her, but these won’t respond to her.

_No… damn it!!_ She thinks, trying harder.

And then she feels a hand closing around her hips.

She is pulled out of the water in a single fast motion; the air gets to her lungs almost like it’s alive. And she opens her eyes to find a silver mane of hair in a pale skin tone.

“Eda…?”

“You are a handful Kid, a hell of one,” the woman says, smiling at her.

They land on something, she can’t recognize it first, but the realization hits her in a second.

“Are these… roots?” she says.

“You better bet on it,” Eda says, letting her go and moving her hands, the water that soaks her moves and gets in her wounds, glowing faintly. “I was right, but _boy_ never thought it was like this! Ja, impressive.”

“What are you talking about?” Luz asks; her legs can hold her now.

“Don’t move much,” Eda says, “this can just heal so much.”

Luz nodded before looking down, her mouth falling.

“Is that Willow?!!” Luz says.

Luz stared at the girl, she was moving just like a water bender would, but the water around her wasn’t responding, instead, the plants, roots, and vines were reacting, imitating her limbs, hitting the soldiers, the person of the armor was hit with a mass of roots, knocking them out of the platform into the water.

“The girl is amazing,” Eda says laughing. “Never seen such a powerful water bender… well, actually Lily…”

“Water bender?” Luz says, looking at Eda again, “Willow is not moving water!!”

Eda laughs harder before looking at her and her smile changes, it’s not joyful anymore, but a knowing one. Those which people gave to kids when they ask something obvious.

“Let me tell you about something called ‘advance bending’,” Eda says, moving her hands, and frowning while blocking a fire wave with a wall of air, “do you understand why water benders can turn water ice?”

“Because of training wasn’t it?”

“Well yeah, but the thing is when a bender has mastered well enough their element, their personalities and unique styles get imprinted in their powers thanks to the chi that flows in their bodies, which leads to the ‘advance bending’.”

Eda smiles again at her, sending a huge blade of wind to one of the groups of soldiers, throwing them to the swamp, and then she looks back on Luz.

“This is a type of bending that works on specific types or forms of the elements.”

“Advance bending…” Luz says, looking at Willow.

“Kid down there is incredibly powerful, but she must not know because of the status quo here,” Eda says, “for plant bending you need to be not only powerful but also have a huge connection with nature around you…”

Luz remembers when Willow showed her around when the first got there, the way she seemed in peace with the gardens more than with the clear water ponds, or the people in general.

“Wowza…” She sighs, trembling a little; Willow was moving now massive amounts of roots. “Do you think all this place was…?”

“Made by that kid? Of course,” Eda says, “there is no other explanation for it, Hooty says it himself, woods were hiding this place.”

“Willow is that powerful?”

“You don’t really need to be powerful, that girl spent a lot of time here, didn’t she?” Eda says, “she must have done it along the way, after that, the woods responded to her emotions.”

“So… she led us here?”

“Most surely, and for doing it without actually thinking about it is really impressive.” She shrugs; deviating an incoming water torrent.

Luz nod, before remembering where she was, her legs ached and hurt. But she had done more with worse injuries, she took her bow and arrows, attacking a group of distract soldiers,

“Still gonna fight?” Eda asks, spinning around her and making a wall of wind, “you were about to die there Luz, and water bending can’t heal inner injuries, I just treated bruises…”

“But you came back here,” she said smiling and shooting to another group, the arrows got to their arms and shoulders others missing and taking them out of balance, “you care for me, don’t you?”

“Wha...? I don’t!! I just can’t lose my guide, OK?”

Luz smirks, firing another arrow and turning, hugging her.

“Agh, no, what are you doing?!” Eda says, pushing her away.

“You care,” Luz says, looking down, “…Thank you for coming back for me.”

Eda scoffs and turns, blocking a wave of fire and sending a mini-tornado against the attackers.

“…You’re welcome Kiddo.”

“Stop this aberration you scum of the villages!!!”

That scream resonated and warned Luz.

The person of the armor –a woman, apparently– attacks Willow with a giant fireball, the girl made a wall of vines and roots. The said resisted the impact but were burned away, the second mass of flames hit her and sent her to the remains of a house.

“Willow!!!” Luz said.

She turns at Eda, nodding to the woman before jumping down, letting the bow go, and taking out her sword.

“Die scum!!” the woman says.

“Don’t you dare!!!” Luz says while falling.

The woman reacts but is too late to change her position. Luz manages to bring down the blade in the hand of the woman, the armor avoiding the contact of flesh and bone. The fire blast hit the wood of the bridge and causing an explosion.

Luz is sent away by the shockwave, landing in the ground close to Willow, she looks up, now between the woman and the there is a fissure in the floor.

“You!!!” the woman says.

Luz tenses and tries to get up, failing. Now she has a broken rib at least, great.

But the woman doesn’t attack, Luz pays more attention and gapes at the sight, the arm of the woman is twisted in the grossest way she has ever seen, a third articulation in the middle of her forearm.

_Uh… I did that?_ She thinks, grimacing.

“Luz!!” Eda says landing next to her, “Kid, you are simply a reckless brat!” She turns, and stares at the soldier, her eyes landing on the injury and she flinches, before looking back at Luz, “did you do that?”

“… Kinda?” the teen says, standing slowly.

“You are a force to take in count,” Eda woman says, noticing her injury and getting closer, “uh… water healing can’t fix that.”

Luz grimace and turns to Willow.

“We gotta get them out of here…” she says, walking up to her.

“Already on it,” Eda says, taking Willow up her shoulder and pointing the west wall.

Luz gapes at the image of King dancing over an earth tunnel on the vines barrier.

“He is so cute!!!” Luz says, flinching and almost falling to her knees, “broken ribs are… no good for shouting…”

“Yeah, know the feeling,” Eda says, blasting a wave of fire and making a great wall separating them from the remaining soldiers. “Now let’s go Kid.”

Luz nods, advancing as fast as her body allows her to. They fall to the water and Eda makes an ice platform which moves them to the tunnel, Kings stops dancing when he sees them and jumps down.

“You are a problem after another Luz!” King says when they reach the entrance of the tunnel.

“More running, less lecturing!!” Eda says, letting Willow on the ground and collapsing the entrance to the tunnel, “we need to run, they’ll make through in no time!!!”

Luz nods and goes after Eda, letting the camp behind and charging Willow with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, not team up with Willow... but don't worry, she is not out of the picture yet!  
> Now, horrible thing that happened, if any of ya was wondering is... my dog just died, and I'm crying a lot with my bro, but I needed to distract myself so... yeah, I posted this.  
> Now, what I have to say in higher notes is that my other long fic 'Diary of a Lost Witch' is getting posted on another page too! you should know which one already! it ends in ".net" and that the new chapter is still due to be out on Saturday, and it's mostly corrected!  
> So yeah, check out the story of Half-witch Luz! If you want, ofc, ofc.  
> Anyway, thanks for reading and all, I hope I can have the next chapter in better shape next week and this time on time.  
> That would be all, thanks again and G_U out! Peace~  
> Hasta Pronto!


	8. The Spirit's home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After getting separated from Willow and her tribe, our heroes are traveling through the sky when Luz finds the location of a re-constructed air nomad temple and upon hearing about it, Eda decides to push them there.  
> What awaits the group in the sacred place?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much to say this time around, crazy week over, but I'm barely getting back on my feet, so... yeah.  
> Not owner of any franchise here, and I hope you are liking the story so far, I've been trying to keep it up, but between work and the other stories I have on my work table, this is getting kinda hard... but I promise this will be posted on it's totality, don't worry about that!  
> Anyhow, read ya at the end!

“Are you sure this is OK?”

“Has to be.”

Luz sighs, fixing herself in her place on Hooty’s saddle. The demon is walking them, Luz sees her maps, Willow has fixed some of the info she had wrong when they parted ways.

It was… a weird part way.

Luz touches the map again and sighs; the help Willow gave them was far more useful than she had expected it to be. She smiles remembering how the girl took all the people with her and started to run near the coast. They wouldn’t be as safe as before, but it’ll be a good point to have better things to control in their favor.

“Still thinking about those people?” Eda asks.

She shrugs, turning to look at her. “Yeah, we were with them long enough, how could you not think about them?”

“I keep my mind in the flow of the things, and only in the present.” She says, moving her hands in multiple directions, “you need to be able to break your ties with the rest of the world to be free… or at least is what the nomads told me once.”

She nods, before standing up and moving to be next to Eda, she drops herself to sit beside the woman, looking ahead.

Eda is sitting in the lotus position, and Luz looks at her carefully, she is breathing and even under the scorching sun, she seems to be pretty… comfortable. She puts the map away in her bag and moves closer to Eda.

“What are you doing?”

“Meditating,” Eda said, “I need to keep my bending sharp now and then.”

“Meditation doesn’t help bending… does it?” Luz asks and Eda looks at her by the rear of her eye.

“Meditation is essential to master the power of bending, like now, I’m mastering fire,” Eda responded, closing her eyes again.

“Really, how?”

Eda smiles and takes a deep breath when she breathes out, a bright orange flame comes out, scaring Luz.

“How…?”

“Fire bending meditation is about the heat Kiddo,” Eda says, “you need to feel the heat of the sun, to feel your own inner heat and let it bur the air in your lungs, you need to be able to just… breathe.”

“The most destructive element is about breathing?”

“Fire is not just destruction Luz.” Eda looks at her, and makes a little flame in her hand. “Fire might be destructive, but it’s not all that it is… the fire burns, but it does so because it’s _alive_ , the fire bending was supposed to be taught to people in search of something more…”

“Bright?” Luz jokes.

“Enlightening,” Eda said, “fire is about heat, breath, harmony… fire is live, the same as air is freedom, water is change and earth is steadiness.” Eda puts the flame off and closes her eyes. “Bending is much more than just manipulating elements.”

Luz stares, Eda repeats the ‘breathing flames’ thing a few more times before stopping all what so over and jolting up, moving to her bag, taking a canister, and downing it. The silence is heavy after that, Luz looks at the woman who is inspecting the bag with a worried expression.

Luz looks at her for a second before smiling and searching in her bag.

“You know? There is an air bender temple ruin close here,” Luz says, taking out her maps and Willows.

“Really?” Eda says, looking at her, “we are not even close to one of the points where they would be…”

“This is a relatively new one if Willow is right,” she says, showing the older woman the map, “here, look, is a new temple build around eighty years ago.”

“That’s not new, kid.”

“It certainly is newer than one of one hundred and more years ago.”

“Touche,” Eda says, and they both laugh, “oh kid, if you were there when I was growing up…”

“I’ wouldn’t be here right now.” Luz throws her a bright smile and then she is studying the map, “hey, we could take a break there.”

“Break? We are being chased by an army…”

“The temple is still safe, is well hidden from the emperor tropes,” Luz says, folding the map, “apparently is a safe house for Hexside if things go south…”

“And how does the plant bender kid know about it then?” Eda asks, raising an eyebrow.

“She said she didn’t know actually.” Shrugging and getting the map in her bag, Luz looks down. “There were only whippers, but hey, we need a place to let Hooty rest, don’t we?”

“I’m getting exhausted Eda!!” says the demon.

“I don’t know…” Eda says, closing her eyes.

“Look Eda, I’m all out to be in Hexside as fast as possible, you know that, but going all off steam this fast is not good,” Luz said.

“Eda” King says, getting the attention of the two women, “we are running low.”

“On what, your snacks or some stupid thing like that?” Eda says with a laugh, but King doesn’t scream in response, nor does he complains.

“On _that_ Eda,” he says surprising Luz with how calm he is, “you just saw it.”

But the calm demeanor is only his.

Eda tenses, Luz watches her take in a shivering breath, and then the woman is sitting beside her and getting one hand to her chest, Luz notices the change as fast as it happens.

“Eda?”

“Where is this place kid?” she interrupts, and Luz stares, “Where, Luz?”

The low-key tone in her voice makes her shiver and she moves away from her by instinct.

“Is supposed to be on some mountain not far north from here…”

“You heard it Hooty!” Eda says to the demon, “Kick it!”

“What, Eda?!!”

Hooty unfolds his wings, in a single and fluid motion they are back in the sky, the ground is kilometers under them, and then the demon is blasting them to the north. Luz holds herself to the saddle for her life. She tries to speak, but the wind is too strong, her ears are buzzing and she can’t even open her eyes, King is next to her, she can feel the creature trembling, but without moving from his place, not even an inch.

_How does he do it?!!_ She thinks, losing her grip for a second before pulling and hugging the saddle instead of just hold it.

Her nightmarish time lasts a whole hour, Hooty starts to slow down, and she can finally open her eyes.

“What the hell Eda?!!” she says looking at the woman.

But Eda doesn’t respond to her, she is with her eyes fixed in the front. Luz follows her sight and finds a view she was sure would never forget.

The temple is there, rising within the peaks of the mountain, bridges of ropes and wood making a net between the three peaks, the center has a great construction of stone and steel, suspended in the middle of the air.

“Wow…”

“This certainly is not from my time,” Eda says and takes her staff, “but I like it.” She adds, jumping.

Luz doesn’t scream, she sees Eda flying to the temple on her own and relaxes, taking in the view in front of her. The temple is made with steel, but she can see shinning gold parts in some places, and the stone is… how could that thing stay in the middle of the air?

“Humans build that?” King asks, getting to her shoulder. “I can’t believe it!!”

“Yeah, me neither Buddy…” she says, smiling and pathing Hooty, “think you can find a place to rest Hooty?”

“Leave it to me, Hoot-hoot!”

The demon moves around the place, Luz can see more now, the construction also has wood on it, making frames for doors, windows, and what she assumes are entries for flying benders and creatures. Hooty circles one more time before going to its base.

“What are those?” King says, pointing down.

Luz follows his – cute, incredibly cute, and fluffy – paw and gapes.

“Those are Sky Bisson!!!” Luz says, standing up.

The creatures are some dancing in the air, some are sleeping ad others are eating or playing. Luz is mesmerized by the looks, all the Bisson are in a little valley at the point where the three peaks separate from the base mountain that holds them, Luz can also feel a great wind current coming from bellow, and then she catches something else.

Support beans. Iron and steel getting out of the peaks and connecting to the temple,

_So that’s how it holds itself in the air._ She thinks, and then Hooty starts his essence.

They enter the temple from bellow, getting into a type of common ground, she can make out a few fountains and gardens, the vines and bushes had covered the walls and part of the stone on the floor.

“This place is beautiful,” Luz says, getting down Hootys saddle.

“Meh, is fine,” King says from her shoulder, “but it really is deserted…”

“It’s a safe house, so there shouldn’t be anyone if all is OK,” Luz says, walking to one of the fountains, “so I’m happy is abandon right now.”

“Yeah, yeah, now, where did Eda go?” the spirit asks, moving to the staircase of the place.

“Right, where did Eda go?” she says, following him.

The building is devoid of… anything really, she can’t find more than the construction itself and plants all over it. There is no furniture and no signals of food. She does find a garden with a lot of veggies and another one with a rice paddy.

Is a miracle that anything has grown there without anyone taking care of it.

She gets to the upper levels and smells the air, is certainly as she expects from the tales of old in the books back home, the air is thin, cold, and pure. Luz gets a little drowsy and sits, looking at the rest of the temple above her.

“This place is incredible…” She whispers, the silence making it sound clear and strong. “Eda lived in a place the same this?”

“Not the same, but pretty similar.”

Luz smiles, throwing her head back and seeing the amber ones she knows now, Eda smiles, sitting next to her.

“I assume you found whatever you were looking for,” Luz said closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

“Yeah, something like that” Eda said placing her staff in the ground before looking at her, “after all these years, is good to see that at least the architecture has an improvement and not a sept-back… it’s nice.”

“The place is beautifully built,” Luz says, opening her eyes, “can’t believe it was eighty years ago, it looks almost new even if there hasn’t been anybody around.”

“There has been somebody around.”

“Yeah, who then?”

Eda smiles at her, before taking her hand and standing up, she pulls Luz along to the entry to the main building in the platform, a type of chapel that stood in the middle of all. Luz watches Eda stand in front of a door without locks or knob.

“How are you gonna…?” Eda says her by sending a powerful wind to a hole in the frame, the door makes a musical sound and opens sliding up, “Yaozaa-whaoza….”

“Welcome Luz, to one of the most important places in all air benders home, the spirits pond!!”

Luz gapes and feels like her entire body is free of weight. In front of her there are a million crystals and small waterfalls, but more important than that she can see something she didn’t expect.

Spirits.

Dozens of them, swimming in the little ponds, climbing the crystals, and flying through the skylights; all of them have different bodies, some have feathers, some others are a little like King and others are some kind of reptiles.

“How… How is this possible Eda?” Luz asks, turning to the woman, she is playing with one of the flying spirits, “I thought they were supposed to be in the spiritual world…”

“Usually they should, it used to be like that too,” Eda says, smiling and advancing further inside the place, “but when I was a kid my people told me of this one person who was able to make a gate, and some of the spirits came by it.”

Luz tails her, spinning while walking. “Like when you did it? All that light and wind…”

Eda laughs and lets herself fall next to the biggest of all ponds. “Yeah something like that, anyway, there were many spirits in the ancient temples… I’m happy to see that there are still… even in this new place.”

Luz can’t help but… look at Eda right now, she is not the foxy lady she has been seen all this time, she is not the woman that can’t be the avatar, she isn’t even the old lady that almost kills her anytime she tries to cook.

Now Eda is… ethereal.

She looks just as an ancient person should look, the years she has lived, the places she had seen so many times before; Luz can almost smell the distant winds from faraway in her clothes.

“You really have lived,” she says, looking down, “unlike me…”

Luz is feeling it again, the envy, the pressure is back in her throat and her chest.

“Maybe… but it’s not all that great Kid,” Eda says, Luz looks at her and the expression in her face changes, now is… distant, wishful…

Lonely…

“Why do you say so?” Luz says hugging her own legs.

“Well… I’m… alone” Eda said and massaged her neck, looking away from Luz, “I lived all my life traveling everywhere… on my own… don’t get me wrong, I loved it… but it was just…” She looks at her by the corner of her eye and her hands drop. “Before King, I was… alone Luz.”

“… I thought the air monks traveled together.”

“And they do!!” Eda quickly says, “but I… I wasn’t from the air tribe at the beginning.”

“No? Then… where are you from?” Eda smiles, a soft smile, those people show when they think about what time has taken from them…

The ones of old memories.

“I was from the northern water tribe,” she says, bending a little water and playing with it between her fingers, “they were also a bunch of dick-heads! I can still remember when…”

Eda stops then, her smile gets swipe from her face as sadness overcomes her, Luz perceives it, and reaches out for her, holding her hand by instinct. The woman seems surprised, too surprised… but she doesn’t move, and neither does Luz.

They stay there, in compelling silence, both just… looking at the spirits roam around them.

Then the lightning strikes far away, and the skylight lets the rain in.

“…We should probably go with Hooty,” Eda says, letting go of Luz’s hand.

“Yeah… I’ll go see if I can find King,” Luz says, standing and walking to the door, stopping at it, “… Eda?”

“Yeah Kid?”

“Thank you… for telling me this,” she says, getting out there.

The storm is relentless and cold, colder than anything she has ever faced, but Luz runs down inside the temple, she doesn’t get any warmer but at least the water can’t reach her now.

“King!!!” she says, moving along the rooms.

Which are relatively warmer than the rest of the place. She wishes she could stop for a minute.

Luz shakes her head and groans. “Gotta find King first…”

The storm is getting worse and Luz is about to give up on finding the little spirit when she hears a sound coming from one of the food gardens from before. Running there, she looks over the place, the wind and water hitting her with strength.

And she burst into laughs.

“Luz, help me!!!” King says, fighting to get free… of a tomatoes plant.

Advancing to him, Luz holds her stomach and tries- really tries – not to laugh. “How did you ended there?!!”

“Doesn’t matter, save me!!!”

Between laughs, laughs, and little stomachache for all that laughing, she manages to get King back to his cute little paws and takes the chance to get some food. Returning inside – or the most inside she can be in a place build to let the elements get _everywhere_ – she lets a lot of veggies in a room and looks at the little spirit.

Her mind wanders back to that place where she was with Eda, and it’s almost impossible to connect this little cutey with all the others she saw before.

“Why are you staring at me?” King says, taking her out of her trance, Luz smiles, hugging him – not really caring about how soaked they both are – and starts to cuddle him, “no, wait!!”

“Who is a wiggle guy, who is a wiggle guy, is it you, is it you?” she asks, separating and touching their noses together.

“I don’t know who your wiggle guy is!!!” he says, trying to free himself, “Eda Luz is being weird again!!!”

Luz giggles, letting the ‘fearsome creature’ – as King calls himself – on the ground, turning to examine the veggies.

“She is on the upper floors, or maybe with Hooty,” Luz says, discarding a smashed tomato and a nasty looking carrot.

“Oh, OK.”

Luz turns, King is… calm, somewhat.

She stops her work to see the little spirit pacing before sitting and sighing. His eyes fixed on the exterior.

“Something wrong?” she said turning completely, facing him.

“Mm? oh, no, no, noting wrong,” he says, smiling at her.

King doesn’t… smile like that.

“Really?” she said, pressing a little, “come, King, we’ve been in life or death situation…”

“By your fault.”

“… Right,” she says, her eyebrow twitching, “anyway, we’ve been through a lot together these few weeks, talk to me, buddy.”

He holds her sight, and she doesn’t know why, but King looks less… cute, and more stern, impressive, mature.

More like a guardian.

“Is Eda,” he says, “she has this… thing, she needs to control and I’m here to help her…”

“Eda has a problem?”

“More like a condition?” King says, standing, “in the spirit world it wasn’t a big deal, but the human, the material world is a bit more of a stretch to deal with it.”

“Why?”

King seems about to talk, but then, lightning strikes…

And they both hear a howl.

“Oh no…” King whispers, starting to shake, “oh no, no, no, no, no!!!”

“King?” Luz says, but the little spirit has begun running away from her, “King, what’s going on?!!”

She goes after him, the little thing can run hell lot faster than her in four paws, and she almost loses him when they get to the staircase. Up in the open, she shivers from the bullet drops and freezing wind that hit her.

“King, Eda?!!!” he says, walking to the chapel.

The doors are open, but…

_Are those… claw marks?_ She thinks, touching the holes in the door, they are hot, too hot.

She enters the place, and all the spirits from before are gone, she can only see shattered crystals and slashes in the walls. The shiver from before comes back, but this time she shakes at it, her body is paralyzed.

“Luz!” King says, getting next to her, where was he before? “We need to get out of here!”

“What?” she asks, the paralysis from before going away in little bits, “Wait, where is Eda?”

Luz can’t hear King’s response.

A new howl, this time closer and stronger attacks her ears, she turns around and is faced with a great body, covered in feathers, a pair of black eyes. Claws that are burning red, and the can also see more of the elements, a pair of wings that are deviating the rain – she is pretty sure that those are generating wind – the frontal paws are covered with rings of water and the belly along with the back paws in stones.

“What…?”

“Luz, run!!!” King says, jumping to her shoulder and making her fall to the ground just in time to avoid being hit by that thing blazing claws.

“What is that thing?!!” she says, getting back to the rain, rushing to the staircase, “Where is Eda? She can beat that thing!!!”

She is not prepared for King’s next words.

“That thing _is Eda_!!!”

Luz would have stopped at that, she would have screamed.

But she was hit by the stone covered back paw of the creature, and thrown over the edge of the temple.

She was falling.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it just me? Or do I hurt Luz a lot on this?
> 
> I do, don't hate me.
> 
> Since Avatar world was in the war, but we had Aang going around making friends and doing the fun stuff, we didn't ger the glimpse of real hurt so often, there was an amazing part for that, I'm not blind to them, but I do think more wounds would've happened... like season three, but enough of that!
> 
> Last notes would be the usual. "Diary of a Lost Witch" will get its update on Saturday, and also, I'm currently working on the second Chapter of, "Doctor said it's just a crush"  
> If you don't know it, feel free to check it out!   
> If I see more reactions to that, I'll probably post the new chapter at the beginning of next week.
> 
> Anyway! That will be all, G_U out~ peace~  
> Hasta Pronto!


	9. The Curse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miraculously saved, heavily injured, and utterly devastated. Luz now needs to face the most formidable foe.  
> Eda

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, a lot of things happened and we skipped one week of this story, really, sorry, but as I promised, here we have new chapter!  
> Now~ I don't have anything to say, just hope you like it.  
> Disclaimer: The Owl House, same as the Avatar franchise does not belong to me and this work is merely an entertainment

# Chapter 9: The cruse

Her body is sore, and she can hardly move – she thinks, not like she is trying too much – and she is… warm?

How could she be warm? She…

_I fell… from the temple…_ She thinks, trying to remember, and opens her eyes.

The first thing she sees is white, but not like snow white, but a… fluffy white if that makes sense, The closes her eyes again and tries to move, she can now understand what she is touching.

“F…F-Fur…?” Gosh, her throat hurts.

“Luz!!” She flinches, that’s King, “You are OK?!!”

“Not so sure…” she manages to say, and feels the little paw in her cheek, she manages to open one eye.

King is there, Luz can make out a little cut under the bone that is his face, and there are scratches on his arms and belly.

“What… h…h-happened to you…?”

“He not much thanks to you,” he says, moving back, she comes again, this time with some leaves she can’t recognize. “I’m going to use these to heal you.”

“Heal me…?”

The thing burns, she can’t scream though, her throat is too sore for that, but the pains are there, and she wants to shake off King ‘medicine’ and get some answers, but something holds her… well, more like it smashes her. Is something sitting on her?

“I know this hurts, but is for your own good,” King says, and the burning spread to her legs.

You better stop soon!!

leaves King keeps at it for at least five, or fifteen minutes before she doesn’t feel the burn anymore, she moves her head and faces the result of her suffering. Her arms and legs, along with part of her belly and left foot are cover with those weird leafs.

“Take it easy,” King tells her, placing a leaf in his arm, he doesn’t seem bothered by it, “Look, now we are boo-boo-buddies!”

She can’t help the little squeak that comes out of her at that.

“Oh my gosh, I love you so much… but right now I want to strangle you!” she says, trying to stand up.

“I told you to take it easy!” he screams, holding her, “you can rethink about your murderous thoughts while you rest.”

Luz scoffs but does as she is told. Now she can see where they are… and who is with them.

“The sky bison?” Luz lets out.

“Yeah…” King sighs sitting next to her, “they caught us when we were… falling.”

She then remembers the reason to be falling in the first place, the flaming claws, the stone covered limbs and the wind generating wings alongside the water covered front paws… and the incredibly big fangs.

“King,” she says, sitting – damn it, that is hurting her a lot – and making the spirit look at her, “what… was that thing?”

“I told you already…”

“You must be kidding,” she says, letting go her ouch on him and crossing her arms, “there’s no way that thing… that monster is Eda!”

“Well, sorry to tell you but she is!!” he said looking away from her and growling.

There is something in his voice that makes Luz lose all her will to discuss. She can now see him… trembling and, is he sobbing? That can’t be right…

Right?

“King, are you alright?” she asks, reaching out at him.

“I’m OK,” he says, whipping his face and standing up, “is just the burning from the herbs.”

He jumps down, and Luz can move now, she is a top of a sky bison, she follows King, and faces the valley they passed before. The wind is still powerful, and Luz can her strongest current over them deviating the rain to the sides, leaving the grass patch completely dry.

“Wow… never thought the wind could do things like this…” she says, tailing King.

King scoffs, climbing a hill and looking at her over his shoulder. “Of course it can, is the freest of the four basics, people tend to leave it out because it’s not possible to see it.”

She follows, trying to push aside her pain. The sky bison are looking at them and Luz is pretty sure they are not staring at their food, but it still sends chills down her spine and makes her shiver whenever she catches their eyes on her.

“King, please, tell me what’s going on,” she says when they get to the top, “I deserve at least to know what’s happening if it almost kills me!”

That gets him to stop, and Luz can see him doubting.

“… Eda has this problem since I met her.” King turns to look at her, his eyes are shining, watery, and shivering, “She usually deals with it, in the spirit world was easier… but the material world has its perks and cons…”

King bends down and rips a little grass in his paws.

“Eda’s condition can be treated with ‘spiritual water’, is basically pure water from the spirits world,” he says, moving along the hill to where a few baby sky bison are sleeping, “in the spirit world you can get it anywhere… here; well, is more complicated.”

Luz watches him looking at the bison with a calm and stern gaze in his eyes. Is this really King? Like, her King is a cute fur ball made of anxiety and world domination plans along with a hyper-charged ego.

But this spirit here is not trembling, not shaking in excitement or panic, on contrary, he is… clam, conscious… he gets closer to one of the baby bison, and gives her – yeah, she cheeked – the grass from before, the girl nuzzled him and King paths her head.

“How are you so… controlled?” Luz finally asks, getting closer.

“Eda needs me to be… since she can’t.” King sighs looking at her, and Luz finally sees what she has been missing.

King is not a baby, she finally can see the old soul in his eyes, the sadness, the anger, the irritation, and the frustration he is feeling are reflecting in those watery eyes.

Is an overwhelming sight.

“… What are we going to do now, then?” Luz says, and King smiles – seriously, she doesn’t get how she sees that in a bone face – before climbing the baby bison with her fur.

“Eda must have already prepared a dose,” he says, and gestures for her to climb on, “we need to make her drink it.”

“And how…” She starts climbing on, and it makes her flinch a little but she manages to get on, “are we supposed to do that?”

“I’ve been with her in the few times she gets… feral?” he says, his paw on his chin, then he shrugs. “Yeah, that would work, anyway, she has three weak spots in that state, she can’t stand strong noises, to bright things and…”

“Let me guess, strong smells?” she says, and King nods.

“If we manage to overwhelm her with one of her senses, we can knock her out long enough to make her drink.” He says, and then paths the bison in the head, the creature jumps and starts flying upwards.

“Sound like a plan to me,” she says, holding herself stronger to the back on the bison and closing her eyes when they left the protective dome of wind to get back into the storm.

They managed to push through the rain with easy and got to the stables, there Luz found Hooty sleeping and let out a scream.

“Really?!” she says, getting down the bison, “how can he be asleep?!”

“Hoddie has been carrying us all the way here and other places, even him needs to rest,” King said after letting the baby go back to her valley, “we won’t be getting his help soon.”

Luz bites her lip and walks to the saddlebags, her arrows and sword are where she left them. The special quiver is also there.

“Are you going to use those explosive arrows?” King asks getting to her shoulder, she flinches at it.

“King, hurt…” she says and the spirit jumps down.

“Sorry, sorry… well?”

Luz sighs. “I guess we don’t have much of a choice, do we?”

“No, we don’t,” he says, walking away from her, “let’s move.”

She gets her weapon strapped in – not without problems, but hey, she manages – and follows King, the cold in the temple is the same chilling nightmare from before, but Luz is pretty sure she now is colder than earlier that night.

Surely it’s just her imagination… and the paranoia.

“We can’t make much in the rain, so we need to get Eda inside,” King says, moving to one of the gardens and taking some veggies with him, tossing them to Luz, “so we need bait.”

Luz scoffs, taking the food. “Eda eats veggies in that form? At least like this, she is not picky…”

“She can, and will eat almost anything in that form if we are being honest.”

King makes a gesture for her to follow, and she watches him get inside a room and coming back out with vines,

“So… we just throw this anywhere and she will come to us?” Luz takes vines the vines and makes a net with them, letting the food inside and closing it with a knot. “Can’t be that easy, right?”

“Not everything is a super complicated scheme,” King says; shrugging and looking down the hallway. “We need to get to the place where Eda was treating the water… but I don’t know where it is.”

“… I think I know,” Luz says, kneeling and gesturing for him to get closer, “there was this fountain and little waterfalls in a room full of spirits… you think is there where potion would be?”

“It has to be, I can’t think of any other place for it!” he says, his tail moving from side to side.

“But… we kinda have to go through the storm for that,” Luz says and sighs. “This won’t be that easy, will it?”

King then places his paw in her arm. “Nope, but we can do this, I know we can.”

“Aw, you really have that kind of faith in me?”

“Well, I saw you do a lot of stuff I didn’t think you could, so right now is more of I don’t know if there is something you can’t do.”

“… OK, thanks?”

King smiles. “Your welcome!! Now, let’s move my army of dark followers!!!”

Luz laughs and tails him, not like she had another idea.

The wind is powerful, and the smell of the food could be easily ignored if this was any creature Luz knew about, but here she was talking about a great monster made of a person.

It was OK for her to be nervous right?

“How do we know when to move…?” she asked King, looking around the corner at the tied food in the middle of the yard next to the chapel.

“When the Howl comes?” King says.

“Howl…?”

There is a huge howl, and she jumps – literally jumped – at it, King drops to his four paws and starts running, she takes two seconds, two awful and horrible seconds, to follow him.

Eda is there, eating the tied-up food as if it would run, the storm doesn’t leave a good image of her, but the blazing fans let Luz take in the long sharp-looking fangs and fully black eyes.

_We are fixing this Eda_. She thinks, sprinting to the chapel.

A bolt of lightning startles her, and she can’t react when the water makes her slip and fall – hard, really hard, why did she have to fall on her injuries?! – and a scream leaves her by reflex.

“Luz!!” King’s voice reaches her.

But it’s late for her to respond.

She rolls over her back, barely avoiding Eda’s claws.

“King, get the water!!!” she says, standing, “I’ll distract her!!”

“But…!!!”

“We don’t have time for ‘buts’!!!” Luz jumps aside from a new attack, clutching her ribs and gritting her teeth. “Just do it!!!”

She runs to the food this time, taking the improvised net and keeping her race, she starts to throw things to Eda. The monster doesn’t care for her decoys, unfortunately.

Luz runs to the staircase and throws the rest of the food at Eda. “What do I do, What do I do? _What do I do?_ ”

She can actually connect the attack this time and gets enough time to run down the stairs.

Not that her advantage lasts long.

Eda roars and Luz sees from the bottom of the stairs the beast. Eda stays there, glaring at her, and Luz feels her legs freeze. Her heart is pounding too hard and fast in her chest. Eda roars and jumps.

She is done if she doesn’t do anything.

“I’m so sorry Eda!” she says, taking her bow.

Eda is a falling, two meters, Luz reaches for her arrows, one meter and half, she takes the explosive one out, one and a quarter; she prepares the shot, one meter she pulls the bowstring back.

Half meter, she shoots.

Explosion.

Luz feels her body being pushed back by the explosion and she can’t scream when hitting the wall that stops her. All the air in her lungs is gone, there is a buzz in her ears and her eyes are unfocused.

_Where is Eda?_ She thinks, trying to stand up.

She moves slowly, she is pretty sure some of her fall injuries are worse now.

The dust cloud she managed to create is quickly dispersed by the storm and she catches Eda’s body. She is breathing, thrown in the ground, Luz doesn’t dare to get closer but she forces her eyes to work with her. Eda is not unconscious, but stunned.

Adrenaline returning to her system, Luz moves as fast as she can to the stairs.

“Luz, are you OK?!!” That’s King, she smiles and tries to speak.

Her throat is sore, great.

“I’m OK!” she manages to say, coughing a lot immediately after.

The spirit appears seconds later at the top of the stairs, and Luz can see from her place the little dial she has, the water that contains seems to be glowing.

“Thanks to Rava you are OK!!” King says, jumping down and hugging her.

“King… ribs…” Luz fidgets while saying this and he realizes her.

“Right, sorry.”

“Doesn’t matter; now let’s get Eda to drink this!” she says turning around.

Eda is already up and sniffing the air.

“Oh, fuck it,” they both said and Eda turns in their direction. “Run!!!”

Luz takes King in her arms and starts her race to the next set of stairs. Eda hot on their toes.

“We need to make her drink the water!!” King says, flashing the glass dial.

“Yeah King I know, maybe we could when she is swallowing us alive?!!!”

“That’s actually a great plan!!”

“No, it’s not!!!”

“Duck!!!”

She does so and avoids Eda fangs, screaming, and finally getting to the stairs. She doesn’t have the strength to sprint down them, she doesn’t have her agility – and even if she did, it would probably no suffice – to go zigzagging to avoid Eda and she doesn’t have anything to throw to make time.

So she jumps, directly to the down floor.

“You lost it!!!” King says, trying to escape her arms.

“Maybe!!”

Her response is followed by Eda’s roar. Luz looks back, and the creature has jumped too, but her superior strength made her hit the ceiling over them.

It’s not funny; she is still escaping sure death.

The ground is hard, no surprise there. Luz rolls until she hit a wall – she doing that too much – and gasps, trying to recover control over her breathing.

“Luz, you still alive, right?” King says, getting up.

“Some… somehow…” Luz said kneeling and then turning at him, “how is the water?!”

King shows her the dial, and she is surprised by the fact – more like a miracle – of it being in flawless condition.

“Is just me or this is kinda ridiculous?” she says, standing. Her side stings her and Luz almost falls again. “Really, I took more damage than that thing!”

King snickers. “Well, that’s good right now,” he says, crossing his arms. “Now we better get this thing on her, shall we?”

“Yeah, yeah…”

Luz feels the air hitting her like a bulldoze in the side, her feet left the ground and her breath abandons her lungs.

“Luz!!!”

Kings scream it distant. She can see the ground, and something hot is running down her cheek.

Blood? Probably. Or is it tears?

That would also make sense…

She tries to move her arms, or her legs, anything that would help her to stand up and take a view of what’s happening; but she can’t, nothing responds and she can only hear what’s around her.

Is King OK? The buzzing can’t let her hear anything… is that rain?

Luz’s mind flashes her with the memories from her first training with the sword, her first incursion to deck docks, and her first fight with the teens in her camp. She hit the ground those times too, she also felt weak and most certainly she was immobilized but something.

She didn’t give up then…

I won’t give up now!!” With that though she forces her arms to react; pushing till she can look forward.

Her vision is blurry and all is shaking, but she can see.

Eda has King cornered; her fangs are brighter, exposing real flames, her fangs closed.

“Really…?” she says, glaring at the scene. “She can’t make it easy, can she?”

Luz needs to do something,

Her eyes wander around the place, her bow shine like gold between coal, and her arrows are still in her quiver in her back. She pushes forward with her arms, dragging herself to the bow, her earing is returning slowly, the raindrops echoing all over the place.

She grips her bow and rolls to her back. Hang in there King, I’m on it…

Using all remaining strength she pulls with her abdomen – it hurts like hell – and manages to sit her view is directly on Eda. Luz takes out the arrows and places. The bowstring is harder to pull than before.

Surely because she is actually in her last breathe.

More literal than before.

She takes in a deep breath. “This is what I’m good for…” she says, pulling all the way back.

And she shoots.

The arrow flies, cutting the air, Luz loses her grip on her weapon, her middle is now devoid of strength, and her vision is darkening.

Eda catches the arrow and throws it away, the explosion is too far away, Eda is not stunned. Luz energy is sucked out of her body now, no physical strength and no more resolve, her mental strength is gone.

I’m sorry King… That though is the last one and her entire world is now fading.

And there is a lightning strike right next to the temple.

Luz can see it, blurry, but she sees it… and also hears it. The roar, the shriek…

And then is all darkness.

.

Luz feels her head pounding, and she can pretty much try to scream because of the burning sensation in all her limbs. Her middle body is also stinging, but she can’t really move any of it.

She shivers. “What happened?” she says, opening an eye.

The ceiling is weird, a lot of lines covering it in light blue colors, over grey and white. She greets her teeth and turns her head. There is a bowl with water and some rags next to it; she can also make out the silhouette of a teapot and some cups.

“What…?”

“Oh, great, you are awake Kiddo.” She hears from behind.

Luz moves her head – gosh is hard, what was she doing? – to looks at the newcomer. She sighs, even if it hurts her; and pushes back a scream when the pain stabs her in the ribs.

“Wow, take it easy,” Eda says, placing a hand on her shoulder pushing her down. “You took quite the beating.”

“No, really?” Luz says grinding her teeth and grimacing.

“Yeah, that’s on me.”

Luz watches Eda moving, her hands are steady cleaning her wounds, those horrible herbs King used before are in a pot with water, she now can understand the burning. Eda also has bandages next to her.

“How long have I been out?” she asks when Eda has finished with the cleaning.

“One whole day,” Eda says before letting out a sight. “… I’m… well, I’m sorry kid, for… well, getting all feral on you.”

Luz smiles, she tries to shrug it off – both, literal and figuratively – but her injuries stop her and Eda flinches at the sight.

“Is no big deal,” Luz says. “It’s not like you had any control over it.”

Eda seems to relax at that but is just a second. Her expression turns stern and her eyes are staring at the void, Luz is pretty sure Eda is at a different place right now.

“I’m… I haven’t been frank with you Kiddo,” Eda says, looking away from her. “The truth is… I’m cursed.”

Luz stays silent, processing the information. It’s not a surprise, she already had a guess that Eda was I the middle of things, but hearing the word curse is… unsettling.

“Oh… how is that you…?” she says, trying to think of the right words.

“It happened a long time ago.” Eda takes the teapot and serves a cup, holding it near her lips. “Just about when I got stuck in the spirit world.”

Luz takes a sip, and the liquid travels down her throat, letting a warm, comforting, and relaxing feeling while passing. Her burning limbs no longer bother her.

“The curse is connected to my chi, my… spiritual self, to say it simply… It turns me into that… thing if I don’t purify myself every day.”

“That’s why you drink those dials of water every night.”

“Yeah.”

The wind blows into the room, and the place loses a few degrees in heat. Luz shivers a little before Eda ignites a flame in her hand and lights up some candles around her bed.

“So…” Luz says, looking at the flames. “This happens usually?”

“No, not usually… just when I don’t take the water.” Eda gets closer to her. “King usually makes sure to make me drink… but today was a special case.”

Luz closes her eyes. “I see…”

The information makes her wonder about everything until now, how Eda tries to do everything in a simple runaway style of thing.

“Is this curse the reason why you don’t fight like the avatar?” Luz asks, opening her eyes and facing Eda.

The woman giggles, but is devoid of joy. Luz can tell easily – experience is a good teacher, the best one – the real nature of that laugh.

Laugh to avoid crying.

“No, that is something from before…” Eda says, placing a wild hair behind her ear. “But it haves an effect…”

“Really?” Luz says, and she manages to place her hand over Eda’s. “Which one?”

Eda looks at their hands, taking away hers and looking away.

“The avatar state,” Eda says, and Luz can see she is shaking now, “when I go all… glowing and rampage, is a stage where I can bend better than ever… but is also a resonance to my spirit body… each time I use it, the curse gets stronger and takes over, unless I drink the water.”

Luz tries to remember, but the only time she has ever seen Eda use the ‘avatar state’ was when they got out from her camp… and she fainted right after that.

“So you can’t go all out…”

“No, I can’t,” Eda said standing and dusting herself, she walks to the door. “Rest well kiddo… we’ll be here for a few days.”

She doesn’t wait for a response and Luz is left alone again. This time the heat from the candles and the effects of the tea makes her relax enough to get sleepy.

Her mind wanders in memories, and she can’t help the feeling of terror that assaults her when the image of Eda in her monstrous form flashes in her mind. The feeling is equal or worst to the one she faced when her mother was taken.

_Stop thinking of this._ Luz thinks and she moves in her place, closing her eyes.

She needs sleep; just… sleep.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, nothing else to say here neither, tbh.  
> I'm dealing with insomnia and my mind is hardly keeping up with me, so sorry if this is a bit messy.  
> I'll try to correct the next chapter better than this one and hope you all like it more! Also, stay tuned for my Saturday's update on "Diary of a Lost Witch"!  
> I'll be making notes for the next fanfictions (mostly one shots) if you are interested in it.  
> Without anything else to say, thank you so much for reading and I really hoped you liked it!  
> G_U out, peace~  
> Hasta Pronto!


	10. Need to Breathe/The Fire Waltz

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the fight, after the curse and the hurt... Luz needs a bit of a rest. And while gathering supplies, she finds herself in the middle of Fire nation festival. What awaits for our heroine in the middle of the flames?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Late again, ugh.  
> BUT THIS TIME NOT MY FAULT!  
> There was a blackout, and then I went to sleep. Anyway, today's chapter is a bit different... WE HAVE DANCING!  
> But yeah, not much except that. I know this story is not receiving my love like others, sorry for that, It's just I started publishing this on weekdays and I got wok, sorry ppl.   
> Disclaimer: The Avatar Franchise and The Owl House series don't belong to me, this is a work made for pure entertainment.

#  **Chapter 10: Need to breathe**

“Are you sure this is where you wanted to go?” King asks, moving inside Luz’s bag.

“Yes, now stay still,” she says, pushing him down.

Luz sighs and looks ahead. The little town is covered in thousands of papers with the colors of the rainbow everywhere. The people were rushing from post to post. she smiled when she saw kids playing in the middle of the streets.

A city, a living one.

‘ _This is how things should always be.’_ She thinks, sniffing a boutique of flowers.

“This is boring Luz,” King said, pushing her from the bag.

She groans, before taking a few grapes from a post and throwing them in the bag. “Eat those and don’t talk.”

She smiles at the seller and pays for the fruit before moving on.

“Be glad we found the money in the temple,” Luz said.

She can see some signboards with different types of drawings, offering various foods, some of them are even covered in religious marks. The sea and the moon spirits are painted in a great flag over the riverbank. She can also see a signboard with paintings of dragons and a series of paintings of the creation of the earth kingdom.

although, the lamps were the ones that caught her attention.

There were sky bisons, great winged creatures, and little people flying over her head. She sits on a bench to stare at the show floating in the air. She can see the people connecting for the first time with the sky bison, and how they got to build their temples in the mountains.

She looks down at King before talking. “Why wouldn’t Eda want to come? This is beautiful.” 

“She needs to keep herself near the fountain while recovering.” King replied and his head pops up from her bag. “She is making enough water for a few months, it’s quite challenging.”

_Must be, to lose the chance to see this._ Luz thinks, looking up again.

She stands up a few minutes after the show ends. Walking until the sun starts to set. The orange gains presence in the color spectrum of the street; all the lamps are brighter than before. People started to move, dancing and laughing all over the place.

“This is awesome!” she says, spinning over her feet and stopping in front of a store, she finds herself facing a non-human face, “whoa!”

“You OK Miss?” she hears a shaking voice.

Luz looks behind the ‘face’, a small old lady is smiling at her, her eyes shining in the light of the lamps. Her clothes are bright red and gold.

_Fire nation clothes!_ Luz thinks, feeling the shriek growing in her throat, and stops herself by covering her mouth.

“A little… surprised?” she says.

“Is understandable,” the old lady says, “this is part of a newfound festivity about thirty years ago.”

Smiling and walking to the ‘face’, the woman motion Luz to follow.

“Really?” Luz smiles walking behind her, taking a better look at the merchandise.

“Yes… is the ‘Fallen Sun Parade’,” the lady says, holding out a mask for Luz to take. “We started it when the dragons appeared again…”

Luz takes the mask from her hands; a golden and white cover line in her eyes, the part that goes from her nose to her chin is a bright violet with golden dots in the seams.

“This is beautiful…” Luz turns it in her hands, smiling at the woman. “Why do you use masks?”

“Is because ‘The dragons judgment’,” she says, moving along to a painting, “the dragons don’t look at your appearance, they look at your heart.”

Luz can see two figures, dancing along with the dragon’s movements in the painting. The steps, perfectly overleaping one another make a dance; a fire dance, Luz gets closer to the paint and finds the name written at the base.

“The ‘Dancing dragon?’ what a nice name,” Luz said imitating the poses, almost hitting the woman, she jumps back, screaming a little, “sorry, sorry, sorry… I got carried away.”

“Is wonderful how there are still youngsters who love our culture, even more, if they have such a strong inner fire.” The woman then moves to the front and gestures at Luz to follow, she points to the plaza, “you could enjoy more dancing over there darling.”

Luz looks at the place. And her eyes catch the glow of torches and lamps… and also people, some of them playing instruments and others dancing, the same dance she just saw.

But also, they are all wearing masks.

“I’d love to but…” Luz says, looking at the mask in her hands.

“You can take that one dear,” the woman says. Pushing her, “is part of a set I sold a while ago and fell out of the box.”

“But…!”

“Is a gift, take it would you?”

Luz stares at the woman, and then at the mask.

“… Thanks,” she says, and the old lady laughs, giving her the last push out of the store.

“Have fun sweetie.”

Luz smiles, nodding and running to the plaza.

She puts the mask on, walking up to the dancers. She notices then that the majority are fire benders, throwing flames over the other dancers, Luz gets closer, and she looks more carefully, the pairings are a fire bender with a no bender.

“This dance is different,” Luz says.

The choreography is similar, but there are clear differences when she looks closer. Like the relation between dancers being, not a face to face… but a side to side matter of combination.

“This is not ‘The dancing dragon’, right?” she asks softly.

“No, is ‘The dragon’s waltz’.”

The voice comes from behind her, and she turns to face a mask just as her own, but the colors are a deep blue in framing the shining amber, the part that covers the nose and mouth is white with golden ornaments, she has a hat too, a red fluffy one.

“Good taste.” The other girl moves to stand next to Luz, her hands on her back.

“Thanks, you have a great one too,” Luz says, glad to be wearing a mask, her face is burning and she is pretty sure the fire doesn’t have anything to do with it. “What is ‘The dragon waltz’?”

The girl is smiling – Luz can’t see it, but she is sure she is doing it – and holds a hand out to the dancers.

“When people started to bend fire… before that actually... they looked at the dragons for guidance, so they tried to imitate them… but without the fire of their own, humans needed to work with them…”

“So this dance is about that?” Luz asks, reaching out, her eyes capturing every movement the best they can.

“Yeah, something like that… when the bending era started though, the original dance got lost, and ‘The dancing dragon’ took over…”

“Is kinda sad…”

Shrugging and looking at Luz, the other girl talks again. “It got back after some time…the non-benders are part of society too I guess…”

Luz catches the tone, is… unsettling and she tries, really tries to ignore it.

“Is nice to know I have a place.” Luz crosses her arms, the other girl is surprised to hear her, she can tell.

“I didn’t mean it like that!”

The girl’s hands move a bit too much, and she is now standing in front of Luz.

“How could you have possibly meant it then?” Luz scoffs, looking away.

“No, is not like I think like that is just…”

“Just?”

The other girl stops herself and drops her hands, looking at one side.

“Is… is just how my parents talk…” she said looking back at Luz, “benders have power, one that others don’t… I _do believe_ that there are things benders can do that non-benders can’t… but that doesn’t make you, or anybody, less…”

“Is just what you are implying!” Luz and opens her arms and glares at her. “You just said that we _can’t do things_ , you are just saying we are not good enough.”

Luz knows she is being unreasonable, that this girl is not those people who keep looking down on her.

But she is just so, so angry right now.

“You know, thanks for the help with the history lesson, but I think I better go.”

“Wait!” the girl says and holds her hand.

Luz stops; looking at her, the hand over hers is warm. And she faces the girl again, the amber is shining with… worry? Maybe is just guilt?

“I didn’t…” she says, recomposing her posture, “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

“Well, is a funny thing… you don’t get to choose if you do.”

The girl doesn’t say anything and Luz is mad, not with her – not much anymore at least – but with herself for being a jerk to this person who is clearly trying to apologize.

_I can’t do this right now._ She thinks and pulls her hand.

But the girl doesn’t let her go; instead, she pulls in her own direction.

“What?” Luz asks, leveling their eyes.

“Would you like to dance?”

The question unsettles, and she is positively out of her element. Luz is used to people not looking at her, not talking at her.

And now someone is looking at her…

She feels the heat fill her up. Her head is burning and she is sweating now, she is also shivering, and can’t find her voice.

So he just nods and hears the laugh of the other girl before she’s pulled to the dance area. She manages to throw her bag to one bench and is pretty sure King is going to mad at her when they go back to the temple.

“Just relax,” the girl says, taking positions imitating the other dancer, Luz takes a deep breath.

“Not sure I can.” Luz lets out a shaking laugh.

The music starts to play.

Luz starts the dance, bowing to the other girl, then she passes to her side, her back to the girl, then she blows fire to the front, the heat is impressive, but Luz is not bothered by it in the sightless.

They dance, Luz moving around this girl, who at her own pace is moving around Luz, the fire kisses the air Luz breathes, the flames just avoiding touching her skin. Her hand is placed in the perfect spot to catch her partner when she creates a tower of fire, and they both end up so close that their hearts make music in Luz’s ears.

The song stops when the girl jumps, spinning in the air releasing a ring of fire, and landing in Luz’s arms. Both of them are breathing hard, and the crowd’s cheers are stunning.

Laughing, Luz lets the girl return to her feet. “This was great, thank you!”

“I also had a great time!” the other says, walking with her away from the dance floor, “you can dance.”

“Yes I can, do you like it?”

“Pretty much, ahm…”

She smiles, and stops, extending her hand to her. “I’m Luz, Luz Noceda.”

“Is my pleasure Luz,” says the girl, taking off her mask.

And Luz’s world stops, her brain kicks into overdrive and her heart breaks a record for how fast is beating now.

She knows this person, those eyes… that scar…

The girl moves away from her forehead a wet lock of green hair. “I’m Amity Blight.”

Luz stares and tries to think of a way out, but she can’t find any. The soldier that hates her the most –at least in her opinion – is standing in front of her with one of the cutest expressions she had ever seen.

_What am I supposed to do now?!_ She thinks; the panic escalating at a scary speed.

“Luz!!!” the shout is both, a blessing and a curse.

She turns, looking at the source of the commotion. People are screaming now, there is a shriek and then the cute – but not desired – fur ball that King appears in her sight.

“Sorry!” she says to Amity, pushing her and running to King.

She takes the spirit and runs faster.

“What, who are you?!!”

“Is me King!!” Luz says, taking her mask off and going to the bench from before, her bag is – miraculously – still there.

“Luz, you left me!”

“Yeah, sorry, wasn’t thinking…”

“Stop right there!!”

The shout is followed by a wall of earth appearing in front of her. She gasps, but doesn’t stops, throwing the mask and King inside the bag, Luz jumps, reaching the top with her hands and pushing up.

She looks back for a second while passing over the wall.

Amity is gaping at her, and Luz tries not to feel bad about it.

She fails.

The landing is harsh, but she manages to keep running. She can still hear guards screaming in her direction and every once in a while a new earth wall appears, or an ice one.

She is close to the woods; there she can just look for Hooty.

“I can’t believe I danced with you,” a voice says over her.

And fire cuts her path.

Luz curses and turns around, Amity is there, she is no longer wearing her hat, and her clothes – an overall dress and pants in the dark violet and black, Luz has to admit she likes it – are all rolled up.

“Being honest, I can hardly believe it too,” says with a shivering smile.

Amity grans, holding her head in her hands. “I can’t believe I talk to _you_ about my parents!”

_That surprised me too, actually._ Luz thinks, shivering at her own thoughts.

“I’m going to put you where you belong!”

“In my house?”

“In a cage!!”

“I’m no animal!”

“You sure act like one!”

“You _invited me_ to dance!”

Fire was her next answer, and Luz groaned before jumping to the trees and grabbing a branch.

“You are…!!” The girl stops attacking, and Luz can see how her face gets red, really red. “You are insufferable!!”

Luz stops running to stare at her. “Really?” she says, dropping her hands to the sides, “I mean, I was expecting something more aggressive.”

“Just shut up already!!!”

The fire is too close, almost hitting her but Luz manages to avoid the flames and close distance with Amity, her stick is not as threatening as her sword, but she can cope with it.

Amity can too, for her bad luck.

She groans when the wood catches fire just about to hit Amity. Luz throws it to her face and takes the chance to tackle her when she dives to dodge. Both of them roll in the ground, hitting roots and stones. Luz manages to stop and top Amity, holding her hands over her head.

“Let me go!” Amity says, glaring at her.

“Could you promise me that you won’t try to kill me?” Luz said and the other girl growled – literally _growled_ at her!! – fighting to be free. “You can’t make this easy, can you?”

“Not for you!”

“We are both having it hard this way!”

Their little fight gets cut short when an _actual growl_ sounds next to them. Luz stares at Amity and is pretty sure the surprise in her is genuine.

Both look to the left.

There is a mouth, full of teeth – fangs; those are all fangs, no teeth – and a pair of eyes that are glaring at them. But the rest of the creature is… weird to say the least. There is fur in most of it, but there is also a type of shell that covers its front paws and back.

“… Hello?” Luz says, smiling weakly.

“Really, did you just do that?” Amity asks, her fight from before forgotten.

And the thing roared at them, all the fallen leaves and loose sticks on the ground flying away from them.

“Truce?” Luz said; standing and pulling Amity along.

“Truce.” Amity then started to run, this time she was pulling Luz from the arm to move.

Luz runs, jumping with practiced ease over roots and branches, fallen trees, and pitfalls. Amity is keeping up pretty well and both of them managed to gain a little distance from the thing. They stop, sliding down a little hill they hide behind a giant tree.

“What is that thing?!” Amity asks in whispers, her breathing is superficial and too fast.

“Like I would know,” Luz says, stopping herself and controlling her breathing.

She can’t freak out here, she just _can’t._

“You are traveling with a furball with a bone-head, you are most likely to know than me.”

“Don’t get King into this!” Luz closes her eyes and moves her hand to see if King is OK, but finds her side empty.

She moves her neck too fast – it hurts, great, now she’ll have to fix that later – and feels her heart crushing inside her.

“King is gone?!”

“Shut it!” Amity says, smashing her own hand over Luz’s mouth.

Luz is about to protest when the ground shakes and paralyzes her. Both stop moving and hear the breathing of that beast. Is sniffing, looking for them, and getting closer.

“You can’t scream like that,” Amity says softly, looking at her in the eyes.

Luz can’t reply – not only because she physically can’t – and stares into the other girl’s eyes. She can see fear there, real fear, and also a real concern. If it’s for her, or for herself, she can’t tell.

But she can tell they are still holding hands, and her eyes move to those.

Amity must follow her lead because they separate shortly after and look to the other side.

“King is gone,” Luz says now, looking at Amity over her shoulder, “my entire bag is gone, actually.”

“Must have fallen when you tackle me.” Amity scoffs, fixing her hair in her bun. “That thing should be alright, this creature is chasing us.”

“That doesn’t really make me feel better…”

“Not trying to.”

“Have anyone told you, you need to work on your social skills?” Luz says, turning to her, “I mean, you were so charming when you didn’t know it was me.”

“I don’t fraternize with the enemy.”

“Right, you just dance with them,” she says standing up and looking at the terrain.

Luz can make out some footprints. Also broken branches and fallen trees, but none of them seems to be of that creature, are too… small and also swallow. The broken areas are too low for the size of the thing; she could think a bear did all those…

_A bear?_ She thinks, looking down, and getting closer to the ground, moving the dirt.

“Now what are you doing?” Amity says next to her.

“Searching,” Luz said, taking a small rock and rising it. “…Shoot.”

“What?”

“This is bad news…” she says, turning to Amity.

“Is just a stupid rock…”

There is a growl and the trees next to them fall before Luz can even explain her discovery. The creature is there again, and this time it doesn’t take any chance, throwing its great claws against them.

Luz ran, trying to reach Amity, she needs to explain their situation, and she needs to do it fast. But the creature is now going after the fire bender. She jumps over a fallen tree and dives under another, getting as close as she can to Amity.

Amity, on the contrary, dives into a sea of wildflowers, and appears on the other side, glaring at the creature. “Enough!!!” Her scream is quickly followed by a blast of flames going against the creature.

“Amity, no!!” Luz says but is too late.

The girl is now attacking like a maniac, her flames eating the flowers on the ground, burning the trees and erasing the green and replacing it black and dark brown.

Is too late indeed.

The creature doesn’t move and the fire strikes, all the time, and a curtain of ashes and dust raises. Amity lets out a little cheer jumping her place.

She smiles and turns to Luz. “See? I controlled it.”

“Wanna check again?” Luz says, running away.

“What?”

There is a roar, and Amity jumps in her place, turning to the creature. Now is angrier than before, that’s for sure. Luz is looking all from a _safer_ distance – behind a boulder of rock, thank you - and shivers at the powerful roar.

They are in a pinch now.

“How did it survive all that fire?!” Amity screams, jumping over the rest of her attacks, and dives to hide with Luz.

“Because it’s not a physical thing,” Luz says, showing Amity the stone she found before.

The bender girl stares at Luz and then at the stone and vice versa. “What the devil does that mean?!”

“It means that is guardian deity!” Luz says, getting the stone closer to Amity, “this is a guardian marking.”

“Is, a, stone!” Amity says, glaring at Luz. “There is no such thing as a deity!”

Luz gapes, trying to find the way to react to this.

She doesn’t find it.

“What? That is clearly a deity Amity, is the guardian of these woods!!”

“Those things don’t exist, they are just fairy tales!!” Amity says, “we are taught that first in the school!”

Luz is now a mass of boiling rage. “What, how could they tell you that?! There are so many of them out there!!”

Amity doesn’t respond to that, but Luz doesn’t need any response. She knows then what was happening.

She lowers her hand, her rage fading. “You… you never left the emperors cities before…”

Amity flinches but nods slowly looking down, her frown marking harder in her face.

“Why?”

Amity looks at her and groans. “I don’t have to talk to you about this.”

Luz sighs, and looks over the stone before sitting down; the guardian is not looking for them anymore, instead, it was moving the burned trees and flowers. The scene made her sad, Luz looked at the stone.

It was small and covered in beautifully covered marks of leaves and branches.

“I never left my camp before neither,” Luz said, placing the stone in the ground, “mom always told me the emperor’s nation was out looking for us… to lock us in cages.”

“What? No, we don’t do that,” Amity says, looking at her, “Who told you that?”

“My grandmother died to avoid us being capture, mom kinda told me every day.”

“Your grandma did? But the only deaths are from the resisting ones…”

“You think people won’t resist when you invaded their homes? Sorry to break it to you Amity, but that’s not how it works.”

They stay in silence for a few minutes; the only real sound is the steps of the guardian in the burned ground.

“I grew up in the main island of the empire,” Amity said, breaking the silence, “there we train and study to be part of their forces… is an honor to be one.”

“An honor to be a soldier? Not my kind of place,” Luz says, looking at her.

“Not mine either, if it weren’t for my…” Amity stops, looking aside. “Anyway, the soldiers are meant to be liberators…”

“Liberators of what?”

The answer Amity gives makes Luz stop breathing.

“Lies,” Amity said, raising her head to the sky, “all the lies this world keep telling us.”

Luz stares at the other girl’s face. There is a knot in her throat impeding the air to go freely to her lungs.

This can’t be…

“Amity, that doesn’t make any sense.”

“It does!” she says, looking at her eyes, “the emperor family is looking to free people from the lies the other nations had told them from years before.”

“Which lies are you talking about?!” Luz now got up to stand in front of the other girl. “The soldiers took the spirits of the water tribe, destroyed the ancient homes of the air benders, and completely obliterated the home of the earth kingdom!!”

“Those were necessary means!” Amity said, standing up.

“For what?!!” Luz said back, her eyes were burning, and she held Amity by the shoulders, “for what did my grandma have to die for?”

Luz doesn’t know where the question came from, but she is glad it came out.

Amity gapes at her, looking so torn that Luz almost feels bad for placing her in the middle of it all… almost. The fire bender shakes her head and looks down,

“… The emperor’s soldiers are meant to bring true peace to the world,” Amity says, closing her eyes, “the divisions between nations were just to keep secrets… and the tales of old keep us away from the real shape of the world… what it should be!”

“And what, is, that?” Luz said letting her go, expecting a new answer that would be the same as before.

But Amity doesn’t say anything.

The silence makes Luz let out a shaking laugh. “… You don’t know,” she says, “You are fighting a war, and you don’t know what for!!!”

“Shut up…”

“You just blasted in my home, attacked and chained my people, and you don’t even know what the bigger picture is!!!” Luz said stepping back, “you soldiers just go to battle without even asking if it’s right!”

“Shut up, you don’t know anything!!”

“No, but it seems like you know even less,” Luz says and walks to the burned patch of the forest.

“Wha…? Wait!!”

Luz doesn’t listen to Amity. And gets closer to the guardian deity; she reaches the deity side, and the creature looks at her, growling and glaring.

But Luz is unfazed now. She knows now what can help.

“I’m sorry… so sorry we invaded your home…” Luz whispers, holding out a hand to the creature, “I apologize for the damage we made… for everything we did…”

She then flashes the stone and places it on the ground.

“I’m Luz…” she says, stepping back.

The guardian stops it’s growling, and its eyes are not sharp, Luz can also see their color now. A perfect blue, crystal blue, comprehensive and… intelligent, that travel to the stone on the floor.

And then it purrs, before letting out something, a little sound almost imperceptible.

“A…Ambrosia…”

Luz stares, before smiling and placing her hand over the guardian’s head. Feeling warm coming from its fur, the slightest purr echoing in the woods.

“What did you do…?” Luz hears and looks back.

Amity is there… just there. She doesn’t seem too eager to go, not to attack anymore, the fear that tainted her before is now gone, replaced with something Luz believes is curiosity and… maybe, just maybe a bit of wonder.

“The guardian of these woods is mad because we came in the middle of a fight,” Luz says, smiling at the guardian again, “they are part of the folklore in this area… they protect the earth, the woods, and the people.”

“They were real?” Amity asks, getting closer, but stopping when the Ambrosia growls at her.

“They are still mad at you,” Luz says, looking at the soldier.

“Wha… why now?!!”

“Did you just forget where we are?” Luz pointed to their surroundings. “You just burned away their home!”

Amity steps back, looking around and Luz sees the expression on the girl change, escalating the path Luz herself has gone through so many times with her mom while trying to impressed Azura.

Realization, disbelief, shock… shame.

“I… I…” Amity begins to say.

There is a shaking in the ground and they both look behind the fire bender. “Amity!!!” a scream comes, and Luz sees the other tensing.

“Boscha…” Amity says.

Luz catches the name and starts to cold-sweat. She needs to move, now…

“Luz!!” That scream came from her left, she turns, a rush of relief mixed with happiness comes to her.

Is King!

“Oh, you made a new ally!!” the little spirit says, waving to Ambrosia. “Hurray, now my army will grow!!”

Luz almost laughs at that, but a new shake of the ground made her look back to Amity, the bender was now staring at her.

“They are coming for me,” Amity said, stepping away from her, “I… I gotta go…”

“Yeah, I know,” Luz says smiling, not like always, but a sad smile, “never thought you’ll go anywhere else with me.”

“Luz… I…”

“Amity, is me, is Boscha, where are you?!” The ground shakes again and one tree falls down.

Ambrosia tenses behind Luz; and Amity raises a hand in their direction.

“I’ll stop them,” she says, looking at the Guardian, “is the least I can do… for everything.”

Luz doesn’t say anything; her heart does skip a beat though,

“Amity…”

“This doesn’t make us friends or anything,” Amity says, turning her back on her, “I’ll catch you next time.”

Luz watches her go, disappearing between trees and leaves.

_I just wish you’d think more and do less._ Luz thinks, before looking at Ambrosia, smiling at them. “Could we get a ride to the other side of the forest… maybe to where is a demon-like-owl waiting?”

Ambrosia makes a noise, before getting their head down and looking at her in the eyes.

“Thank you…” she says softly, turning to King, “come here wiggle guy, I got us a ride to where Hooty is!!”

“Great, I’m done with you walking with me in a bag!” King says.

“I’m sorry…”

“You dropped me _four_ times!!!”

.

Amity manages to reach Boscha just before she gets to kill a new tree. She blasts a fireball in her direction, Boscha notices it and blocks it with a wall of crystal.

“Amity!!!” Boscha says, running at her and hugging her, “where the hell has you been, I was about to level this place for you!”

“You won’t do that!” Amity says, pushing Boscha away and glaring at her.

“Wow, I was worried about you, you know?”

She keeps eye contact and sighs, “… I know, sorry.”

“Are you OK?” Boscha asks, looking her from head to toe, “last time I saw you, you were about to jump into the festival mod… this is our only free day in three months, so I get it but…”

“I was following a suspect along with the town forces,” Amity says, walking back to town. “They got away in the woods.”

“Yeah, notice… not everybody has trained until the point they can push themselves like cannonballs.”

Amity glances at Boscha and glares. The other smiles and raises both hands in the universal ‘I give up’ gesture. And Amity scoffed, looking back to the front.

“Anyway, why did you have to attack me?” Boscha asks, getting next to her, “you acted like something horrible will happen if I killed that tree.”

Amity stops, remembering Luz and the guardian.

“Are you OK?”

“Yeah… and I just didn’t see the point.” She keeps walking and looks at the carriage that had got them to the town waiting in the same place as before. The little road a few meters away from the entrance and her eyes go directly to the brand on its side, the emperor’s mark. “Let’s get back to the ship already, we are sailing, aren’t we?”

“… Yeah, our next mission was decided by what I’ve been hearing.”

_‘What did my grandma have to die for?’_ She remembers Luz’s words and shakes her head.

She doesn’t have to think about it, the emperor nation is freeing people from the lies, from the dark side of the world, from the oppression of the ancient tales and false gods…

They are doing that… right?

.

“Sir, we are arriving on the continent,” One of the emperor’s soldiers says, entering the room.

The place is dark, filled with little lights from fireflies trapped in crystal jars, in the middle of the room a man is staring at a picture of the full moon and with the ‘Imperial Brand’ over.

The man stands up, taking a robe a placing it over himself. “Good, good, the time is perfect, we were almost late…”

“Yes sir,” the soldier says.

“Do you wonder why did I choose this way to travel and no one more… fast, little pawn?” the man asks, walking to the door.

“…Well, a little sir,” he says, “but I understand my position, is not my place to ask.”

“Such a good soldier are you, what would you know?” He said passing next to him.

The soldier shivers at the closeness.

“Just because of that, I’ll have you know the reason.” The robbed figure walks to the stairs, and gestures for the soldier to follow.

Once they both are on the deck, the robbed man walks up to the edge of the deck staring at the sea.

“This is the reason,” he says after a few minutes of silence, “the sea, the water… the infinity plain of blue, don’t you find it… marvelous?”

The soldier stares at the water before returning his sight to the man. “Yes, sir?”

The robbed figure turns slowly, and even under the robe and in the dark, the soldier _feels_ the stare on him. The eyes of the man are covered in darkness but even so, the piercing feeling doesn’t go away.

“Well, I guess not all of us have the same tastes in beauty,” the robbed man says.

The soldier relaxes at those words.

“Then maybe you would like to see another kind?”

The robbed man question is followed by the arm of the soldier twisting all the way back. The soldier is about to scream but his throat closes, asphyxiating him, his feet getting separated from the ground.

“You see… another of the real beauties of this world is more… humankind,” the robbed man says walking closer, one hand extended to the soldier, “many people have told me that I shouldn’t enjoy this kinda things so much… but I just can’t help it.”

The man now is close enough, and the soldier’s desperation multiples when those eyes made contact with his.

Yellow, death, and small crazy eyes.

“But the suffering is so irresistible,” the man says.

His hand makes a twist, and the soldier stops fighting.

“You could let them live until we are on land,” one voice says from under the deck, “this ship doesn’t have that many pawns.”

The robbed figure looks at the door to the inner parts of the ship. There is he, full armor and helmet as always.

“I allowed you to come, Warden Wrath, just because you assured me this was a matter that requires you, not to be mentoring me like a child,” the robed figure said.

“I’m not mentoring, just… advising, fewer people are more days at the sea…”

“Which I enjoy greatly.”

“…and it gets later and later for our mission.” Wrath finished turning around. “Why don’t you get some slip, sir? You can kill as much as you want in dreams.”

Wrath disappears in the stairs and the robbed figure looks after him, before looking up, the new moon receives him.

“I guess a little sleep will make it feel like less time.” He says, looking down to find the corpse, “such a good soldier is gone… whatever.”

With a movement of his hand, the body of the soldier floats and goes overboard, the figure disappearing under the deck.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lumity~ oh Lumity~ you always make things better.  
> Anyway, I don't really have much of input here. The fire waltz and the story that comes from it was made up by yours truly here after researching multiple traditions exposed in the Books of Kyoshi (read them if you haven't, is so good!), the tv series, and the comics. Even if you find it to be incredibly similar to something already existing.  
> Are you feeling mad the Emperor's nation already? I sure am, their plan is such a mess... but, Hey! you still have time to decide.  
> Gotta bail for a week again,but I hope that at least one person liked the chapter? See ya ppl around!  
> G_U peace~  
> Hasta Pronto!


	11. Prodigy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amity is the best cadet, the best warrior, and the best, period.  
> Boscha and Amity are sent into a new mission, how will this clash with the shaken mind of the fire bender?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick chapter since I got to get my cat from the Vet, hope you at least like it a little!  
> I need to give more time to this story, but... work...
> 
> Disclaimer: The Owl House and the Avatar Franchises are properties of their respective creators, and this work is made for the simple purpose of entertainment.

#  **Chapter 11: Prodigy**

“Cadets, get here, Now!”

She gets up as fast as she can and runs down the hallway with the complaints of all other recruits making echo behind her.

_You are not suited for this._ She thinks, jumping from the upper rail to the deck, landing in front of her superior officer and taking her position.

“Impressive as always, cadet Blight,” he assures her with a smirk.

Amity bites back a smile and takes her stance. “Prepared to serve at any time,; Lieutenant Abominable.”

The other recruits come soon enough; Amity is pretty surprised to see most of them still in the ship after what happened in ‘Conformatorium’.

The memory makes her flinch.

She thinks back of the girl she fought, the one who bested her in battle… and the one who danced with her… Luz.

_ Stop, it, Amity.  _ She thinks, closing her eyes.

After the whole deal with Luz in “Twin rivers valley” – that town did have a nice name – she was sent to this ship. Apparently, there was a new mission for them to be part of… but anyway. Luz and those things she traveled with were more of a problem she could’ve supposed in the beginning.

_Can’t think about her now!_ She thought, shaking her head.

“Well, well, now all of you,” the general said, getting the attention of all cadets, “you are here for the newest advance in the freeing of the south west of the earth kingdom.”

Amity felt the push from a hand in her back; Amity took a look at the person in her rear sight. Boscha was smiling at her.

“You’ll be sent in pair to infiltrate the newly found resistant city of New Taku,” the Lieutenant said and some soldiers started to give scrolls to cadets, “the rebel city was constructed on top of the ruins of the commercial settlement with the same name.”

Amity read the notes carefully, sure enough there were notes of the distribution of buildings and the defenses. Boscha jibed in the ribs, making her look at the bottom of the scroll. There was the character they will be playing.

_Students really?!!_ She thought, groaning internally.

“There will be three active groups on this infiltration,” the Lieutenant said, recovering her attention, “cadets Amity and Boscha will be working alongside the cadets training leader, Mr. Zheng to evaluate and dismantle the air defenses if necessary.”

That made Amity ignored the rest of the speech – she could work with just her part anyway – and stare at the man in question. Mr. Zeng was a proficient water bender that made sure all the cadets were treated equally by pushing them in non-bending exercises with real combat training.

The man was a real deal to impress, and now she got a chance!

“You have those eyes again,” Boscha said, jibing her again and makes scoff, “I know you want to get out of the ‘cadet status’, but don’t be so obvious girl.”

“Whateve.” She turned and returned her eyes to the Lieutenant.

“What will you do without me?”

“Be in peace.”

Boscha giggle and Amity smirked.

“… That will be all.” Lieutenant Abominable then looked at Mr. Zheng. “Take your team and prepare, you must be in the city by the sunset tomorrow, an airship will pass in four hours.”

“Yes sir, will be ready,” Zheng said, looking at Boscha and her.

That stare made Amity shiver, but she didn’t look away, she was going to prove she is no cadet anymore.

.

“Are you sure we don’t need more clothes?” Boscha asked, moving to the deck of the ship, fidgeting with her blouse, “like, isn’t these a little… too little?”

“Not everyone has a new wardrobe for each month,” Amity responds, sighing and looking down at her own clothes, they are the same from the festival… and the only ones she had aside from her uniform really, “some don’t even get new ones in years.”

“Oh, shoot, I’m sorry…”

“Doesn’t matter.” She cuts her, looking ahead,

She is not thinking about unnecessary things right now, she haves a mission to complete.

They get to the deck just as the sun is starting to hide in the sea line. Mr. Zheng was nowhere to be found. Amity looked at Boscha; the other girl was also confused by the look on her face. Amity closed her eyes, trying to remember if they forgot anything…

It clicked soon enough.

She jumped, pushing Boscha aside in time to avoid ice shards that were about to stab her. She then turned and made a wall of flames, blocking a water whip. Boscha ran passing next to her, using the crystals in her neckless and bracelets she attacked in the direction the water came from.

“Go!” Boscha shouted, and Amity nodded, running while maintaining the fire going, she tackles but only steam received her.

“Too naïve,” she heard and turned, being hit by a block of ice in the face; landing in her back.

“Amity!” she heard, opening her eyes.

She rolled over herself by instinct, the water hitting the metal, her attacker went for another assault, but Boscha intercepted it with her crystals, giving her time to act. She couldn’t fight these people with common means?

_So be it!_ She thought, blasting fire to the person, finally getting the sight of him – that voice couldn’t possibly be from a woman – the black-coated figure used seawater to make a wall; her fire wouldn’t pass that…

And a memory flashed in her mind, the image of a cavern and a similar situation.

Griping her teeth she blasts fire with all the energy her arms could create and hit the wall, steam appearing immediately. But she didn’t stop running, jumping to the steam and remaining water with her fist first, she pushed swimming inside the wall and got her fist out soon enough to blast a weak but effective flame in the face of the person.

“Now you’ve done it!!!” she heard Boscha and then the crystal hit the man in the side and shoulder, the loss in concentration making the wall of the waterfall and freeing her movements, Amity jumped blasting fire from her mouth and landing on top of the person, immobilizing him with her fist inches away from his face.

“Who are you?!” Amity demanded and heard Boscha getting to her side, the crystals now pointing to the man’s neck.

They both heard softly first, it was not more than a whisper, but then laughter blasted from the man and they both were too confused to stop him from bending the remaining water and trapping them in ice, the crystal falling motionless in the metal ground.

He got up and cleaned himself while the two girls tried to free themselves. “Pretty impressive, I did not teach you that last maneuver, Miss. Amity.”

“Huh?” Boscha and Amity said, stopping their fight.

The man took off his mask and hood. Mr. Zhen smiled at them, his grey penetrating eyes shining with something Amity couldn’t decipher, he made a move with his wrist and the ice melted away.

“I shall say, you exceed my expectations,” he said, getting the upper part of his attire off, exposing the common water bending clothes for a citizen of the rebel cities, “most of the cadet would have failed at the beginning.”

“Was this a test, sir?” Amity asked, Boscha recovering her crystals and reattaching them to her chains.

“Indeed it was,” he answered, looking at them, “and you miss blight, passed with flying colors, Miss. Boscha also approved, though she must improve for the future.”

“I’ll have in consideration, sir,” Boscha said, looking away.

“Better do, missy.” He got rid of the pants too, there was the rest of his clothing. Zheng then walked to the door to the lower levels and took his bag from behind the door. “Now, better be ready.”

“Ready?” Amity said, staying her place while in her rear sight Boscha recovered their bags.

“Yes, thus our transportation is here.”

Those words were followed by the sudden air blast they felt, and the airship was over them, from them a chain with a plate attached in the end went down and Mr. Zeng jumped using water bending to boost himself higher up to land on top of said disc, looking at them.

“Now come, little children.” He smirked, and the chain went up.

“How does he expect us to go that high?!” Boscha said, groaning.

“Hold on tight,” Amity said, passing her arm around Boscha’s hips.

“What?!”

Amity pushed with her legs and arms, blasting fire with all her might, her jump was a bit too high, but Boscha – even while she was screaming like a condemned soul – managed to hold to the chain. They spin two times before landing in the disc.

“Never, do, that, again!” Boscha said, holding her by the neck of her clothes.

“Can’t promise.” She frees herself from Boscha’s hands and looked up.

Mr. Zheng smiled at them, sending an approval nod in their direction – or at least that’s how it felt for Amity, she didn’t know what to think now about the man – before disappearing in the airship, their disc starting it’s ascending.

The airship was already moving when they reached the cargo bay. Amity and Boscha were guided through the ship to their waiting room, a little space with a litter.

“You’ll be dispatched in the morning, your dinner will be delivered here by orders of your superior officer,” their guide said, closing the door.

“We can’t go outside?” Boscha asked gaping.

“Seems like not.” Amity turned to the beds and hopped on the upper one.

She is resting her head in the – oh, so _fluffy_ _pillow!!_ Please, notice her sarcasm – and stared at the ceiling letting her thoughts run wild.

This was it, her chance of making all the right choices and get out of the cadet’s pack and become a real soldier, a real part of the real deal, being a liberator who fights for the glorious sake of releasing the world from…

_“What did my grandma have to die for?!”_

Luz’s words echoed in her mind again, stopping her mind monologue. She hadn’t been able to face it, the fact that there was truth in what Luz has said in that forest…

She didn’t know anything about the real plan.

The emperor had taken the fishes from the North Pole and destroyed the false idols of Ba sing se. They have also taken the trading routes of the fire nation and stopped their unrightfully control of the sea routes.

But for what?

They were expanding… prosperity? Like the Fire Nation had tried, or order like the earth empire? Maybe they were looking for harmony…

“But I don’t know in the end…” she whispered, rolling to her side.

It didn’t matter, she will know when she becomes a soldier, she just needs to be at the top, first, she’ll be top of the cadets, then top soldier, top Lieutenant, general and high general! She can do it, no; she _will_ do it, one step at a time.

“Hey Amity,” Boscha said, and she felt a little push.

“What is it?” she asked, turning to face the girl.

Boscha smiled, she was probably standing on her toes, so Amity moved further in the bed, and the redhead jumped on, laying next to her in the common commodity.

“Hey, why did you do that while fighting Mr. Zheng?” Boscha says, getting a lockout of her face.

Boscha always tried to seem nonchalant or lacking interest in all the training, but Amity knew that she spends as much time as anyone else – even more than anyone… except maybe Amity herself – training to manage the crystals like they were part of her.

She had to thanks to her irregularity.

Amity smiled, “What do you mean?”

“I mean you, jumping directly into the water.” Boscha got one hand to her neckless. “You’ve never done that before.”

She stopped smiling, considering the answer carefully. She had done because she had seen it work before, sure but she had seen those kinds of things before, never using them because her training was everything she needed…

So, why?

“… I don’t know,” she said, closing her eyes, “I guess it was a spoor of the moment.”

“You acted by instinct?” Boscha asked.

“Yeah…?”

“… Something is going on with you,” Boscha says sighing and getting down her bed, “but it’s OK, is cool to see you like this.”

“What do you mean with, ‘like this’?” Amity asks, moving closer to the edge of the bed.

“I mean, you look more human.” Boscha smiled, getting a change of clothes from her bag, “you were always so… mechanic, now I can actually see passion on you.”

“You are talking like I never did anything with you that would get us in problems,” she says, and the other giggles.

“Yeah, but that was before coming here.” Boscha started to change and Amity blushed a little looking away. “I… I’m just happy to have my friend back.”

Amity smiled at that and closed her eyes. “I’m not giving you my meat.”

“Dang it,” Boscha says in an overdramatic tone, making both of them burst into laughter.

.

“We are to be on the city by sunset,” Mr. Zheng told them while the same discs they have used to get to the ship descent to leave them in a small mountain, “So we’ll be moving non-stop to the base.”

“Yes sir,” Amity said and Boscha nodded, the redhead was holding to Amity as her life depended on it.

Somehow, it did.

Mr. Zheng looked down and then to them. “I’ll be seeing you there, if you take too long, I’ll leave you behind.”

He then jumped; Amity watched in awe how the man used a small river to make ice support and slide down to the water level, making a small platform of ice and boosting the river flow, disappearing in the woods in a matter of seconds.

_Show off…_ Amity thought, waiting for the disc to be at a jumpable distance. “Boscha, come on.”

“Why can’t they put on the ground…?” Boscha said, closing her eyes.

“You never have problems in the airships or other flying matters, why are you like this now?”

“Because one thing is flying and the other is falling!”

“Then sorry, but we are falling!”

“No, no, no, no, no, Amity!!!”

She tried to no enjoy – too much – Boscha fear and too childish screams while reaching the ground. They hit the grassy terrain and rolled down a few meters before stopping in a little space between trees.

Amity looked at Boscha; the girl was hugging the ground and looking for her bag. She smiled and stand up her thing have not fallen too far, and she takes it before looking at the river.

“We could follow the same route as Mr. Zheng,” she says, getting closer to the water.

“As if that will be easy,” Boscha said getting next to her while revising her bag, “he must be expecting that kind of thing.”

“You believe so?”

“I know so if what he did in the ship is any indication.” Boscha then points to a risk. “We can work with that instead.

Amity looks at the risk carefully, then to Boscha. “How?”

“You watch me.”

Amity does, moving aside and letting Boscha work with her supposed plan. The girl took her stance and stayed like that for a solid five minutes. Amity was about to say something to her for them to start going on.

Of course, Boscha has other ideas.

The ground shakes and Boscha finally moves, a boulder of pure crystal gets out of the risk, shining under the sunlight.

“Wow… there were crystals in here?” Amity asks, getting closer to the thing.

“There are everywhere, you just need to dig a little deeper than the rest,” Boscha says beside her, breathing hard, “now, get on.”

“You sure? This looked like it made a number on you…”

“Just get on, once we are on the base, you are charging me.”

Amity giggles at that, getting on the boulder. “As you wish.”

Boscha smiles at her, getting on and taking her stance again. The boulder moves, frit slowly, and then they get to change gears. The descent by the side of the mountain allows Amity to see further in the valley.

She is surprised to see a high building there.

She gets out her binoculars and looks ahead. There is a great city, walls around it, not at the level of Ba Sing Se, but pretty impressive, she can also see thin smoke clouds coming out pipes and chimneys in the center of the settlement.

_That must be New Taku._ Amity thinks, looking for the best routes to get there.

She finds it pretty fast, an earth road that cuts the forest. She can also see a proper straight line if they were to get through the forest itself.

But the memories of the guardian, Luz, and all that happened before make her avoid that idea.

“Also it could blow our cover…” she whispers, putting the binoculars away and closing her eyes.

Boscha manages to get them to the base of the mountain in no more than an hour or so. And Amity looks around, Mr. Zheng is nowhere to be found.

“He must be near the river…” Amity says turning to Boscha.

“Surely… he wouldn’t want to lose his advantage in battle,” the other said, smashing herself against Amity, “is your turn to move the team.”

“I know, I know,” Amity says, separating from Boscha and turning around, kneeling. “Get on.”

Boscha doesn’t say anything and does so. Amity groans a little but manages to stand, starting to walk.

“You can’t keep doing this…” she says turning around a tree, “we are no kids anymore… I can’t be charging you.”

“You talk like you don’t have the strength anymore.” Boscha nuzzles her, tightening her grip on her shoulders. “I know you can still do it.”

“The thing is no about can or can’t, is tiring.”

“Are you calling me fat?”

“Maybe.”

“Rude.”

“True.”

They don’t talk anymore after that.

Amity manages to reach the road she saw while descending. Considering her options, she took the road to the city. Going back for Mr. Zheng could be counterproductive if he already started to move without them.

She needs to prove her initiative anyway.

The road is pretty nice if she says so herself. Allowing Amity to keep a regular rhythm, she breathes in the scent of the woods, Boscha is asleep in her back and her little snores go perfectly with the sounds of birds and other animals… is so peaceful that Amity almost forgets why she is there, taking that path.

Her mind goes back to that forest, and the guardian.

What was that in reality?

In the heat of the moment she had believed Luz and her weird story, but now she couldn’t bring herself to accept it. The spirits, guardians, and all that bullshit was just… bullshit, lies and fairy tales from old ladies…

_But the… what was it?_ She thinks, closing her eyes.

“You are doing that face again,” she hears Boscha say, and open one eye to look at the girl, “what is it?”

She opens the other one, looking ahead, “Nothing.”

“If it was nothing, you would’ve already told everything,” she says, getting off her back, “so it is something… does it have to do with our free day in that town?”

How does she hit the jackpot that easily?

“What is it Amity?” Boscha gets closer to her, holding her by the shoulders. “You can talk to me, you know that.”

Amity smiles and sighs, getting the hands off her shoulders. “It’s nothing, believe me… now we need to keep going.”

Boscha looks like she wants to pressure more, but she doesn’t say anything and Amity is thankful for that.

This time they can go faster, reaching the outskirts of the city view range with spare time. They look around, but Mr. Zheng is nowhere to be found, they both tense at that.

“Why wouldn’t he be here?” Boscha asks. “He had a head start; we couldn’t be here faster than him.”

“I don’t know neither…” Amity says, looking around.

“Look at what we have here.”

That voice makes Amity react by throwing fire in the direction from where it came from.

“Nasty!!”

She jumps aside; there is a type of knife stuck in the ground where she used to be. She tenses, looking at Boscha, the girl is already making a protective-offensive stand with her crystals and is looking everywhere.

“I’m pretty sure these two will be a great acquisition for the army,” someone else says, Amity follow the noise, is coming…

_From above!_ She thinks; stopping and closing her eyes.

She waits for it, a sound, a simple sound…

It comes, a little crack from a branch.

Amity jumps, using the flames in the same way she did before on the ship. Getting to the same level as the strong branch of the trees, she then makes a fire wave in all directions.

“Shit!!!”

The scream is followed by a crashing sound and Boscha’s happy laugh. Amity blasts fire to the ground again controlling her fall and landing in front of the two people being threatened by Boscha.

“This was a real welcome party,” Boscha says when she gets next to her.

“I guess,” Amity said, looking at their attackers.

They both have hoods and masks, she can make out a sword and her reaction is to take it. The person tries to stop her, but Boscha crystals are enough to stop them.

_Is not hers._ She thinks, looking at the blade.

Too big, too fancy, and really worn out, the weapon that left a mark in her face is lighter and better-taken care of.

“Who are you?” she asks, pointing the blade to its owner’s neck.

They don’t say anything.

“I’m losing my patience…” Boscha says, and the crystals get closer to the people’s necks.

“They are our contacts inside, cadets.”

That voice makes Boscha jump and loses control over her crystals, Amity turns, moving the blade along, just to find it stuck in ice.

There is Mr. Zheng.

“I’m sorry, Sir…” Amity is fast to apologize, but the man raises a hand, stopping her.

“You did nothing wrong, Miss. Amity, your reaction was expected in this situation.” He then looked at Boscha and then to his feet, Amity followed his sight.

He was trapped in crystals.

He smiled, looking at Boscha nodding. “Impressive cadet Boscha impressive indeed.”

“Thank you, sir.” She then released him.

“In other, more concerning matters,” he said, freeing the sword and walking to the two people on the ground, “these fellas here are the ones who will be helping us in our mission.”

“They will?” Amity asks, crossing her arms, “why did they attack us then?”

“Sorry girl, but when they told us you’ll be coming, we expected adults, not kids,” the first one said, standing up, “we just tried to do our jobs anyway.”

“Your job?” Boscha says getting her crystal back to their places in her clothes, “what kind of job haves you attacking girls in the woods?!”

“Security,” says the other one –Amity notices it sounds like a girl– extending a hand to Amity, “can I have it back?”

She is confused until she remembers the sword is still in her hands. She nods offering it to her. She takes it and returns it to its place.

“You managed to get here sooner than expected, for that you have my admiration,” Mr. Zheng said, and then pointed to the city, “our mission starts today, we need to gather as much information as we can before the superior officials come to deal with the defenses, these two will be helping us with that.”

“Hope we can get along,” the man of the two says and Amity scoffs at the tone he has just used.

“I don’t,” she mutters back, looking at Mr. Zheng.

“Be prepared, cause now is when our real work starts,” he said, and turned to the two secretive persons, “lead the way.”

“As you wish,” they both say.

The group starts to move, and Amity goes at the back, Boscha walking while polishing her accessories. Amity is taking in all the information possible.

She is going to be the best in this mission, she is getting a promotion, she is getting to the top.

They neared the walls and the city looks more impressive than before she can see cannons on the walls and giant crossbows on rooftops.

She has a long way to go in this work.

.

.

.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Building up, Building up!  
> Yeah, that dude sucks~ For those of you who are just waiting for Luz to power up, I can tell you it's not that far away~~  
> But I'm about to take a trip, so the next chapter is tentative, sorry, I'm really sorry!  
> Again, sorry it's short and messy, I need to give this story more time but I can't never really do it, hope that'll change soon. Love ya all! Happy holidays  
> G_U out, peace~  
> Hasta Pronto!

**Author's Note:**

> Quick thing.  
> Since this is a world of bad things happening, some characters are going to be OOC's in some parts, I'll be trying to stick to canon, but believe me, I made choices that needed to be done after a lot, and I mean A LOT of research.  
> Anyway. I'll be answering comments on this fic, for variation of my regular basis, so... feel free to ask, but no spoilers, OK?  
> Hope you liked it, and I'll be seeing you! I'll try to post each week on Wednesdays, but yeah, could vary.  
> Now, for real, thanks for reading, love ya all.  
> G.U. out  
> Peace~~~


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